Insurance & Costs of having and raising a child

[funman168]

Anyone can advise which is a gd hospitalization policy to take up for min cost at decent coverage?

No one should opt out of the Basic medishield unless you are buying the private hospitalisation insurance like from Aia or prudential. Medical expenses are sky rocketing and having basic coverage ensures your family don't need to worry when something untoward happens.

I have an ex-colleague whose father died of cancer as he was not given medical attention in time when they couldnt pay the expensive bills. Her father had opted out of medishield and all his cash are tied up in his business, property and CPF. Needless to say, CPF wouldn't allow withdrawal even if the person is going to die and without immediate medical surgery, he didn't make it until the sale of their property. To think that the family was quite well off but just hit a dry spell with cash..

I don't know why the hospital had the heart to refuse treatment, maybe it's a private hospital and things happened so fast. But I believe bread winners should buy enough insurance to ensure their family need not be flustered when bad things happened and there's no one to make all the wise decisions.!

All the hospital in sg is about money, even you go to NUH you have to pay 1st bef they let you into consultation room.

Best is to buy your own hospitalization plan with rider, mine is around $500-$600 a year, must buy with the rider hor, without rider the first 12k-15k of the bill they don't cover means you have to fork out cash pls don't think can "get by" without it try to save a few hundred dollar is not worth it. I kena paid once wah piang so painful never again.

just to give an idea if you stay at private hospital for 1-2 nights the bill can reach nearly 10k and that is without any operation yet just stay overnight for "observation" your medisafe got how many hundred thousand in there that can let you stay hospital for how long? So you tell me cpf medisafe can do what?

some of you may think going private hospital is unnecessary excess and extravagance why not try going to nuh? if you lucky you might be to get treatment fast at nuh but if you unlucky they may say your condition must wait for availability because many people also need treatment so no vacancy join the queue wait 2 month, if you are dying or in terrible pain want to wait 2 month issit?

I agreed with you rider is necessary to avoid payment of the deductible and co-insurance which is below $8K IIRC

Medisave is for basic medical needs. I have gone to restructured hospital and private hospital for treatments. It is acceptable for restructured hospital treatment IMO.

I am not against going for Private hospital if necessary. Private hospital room rate is $250/day for 2-bed room. Of course suite room will cost close to $1k/day.

2 days stay for observation cost $10k? Not sure how it work out? Hidden cost that i have missed probably?

It is correct that we are paying for peace of mind and transfer of risk. We cannot look at the premium and the payout as a profit/loss thing.

For the $12-15k bills, I believe many value buddies here have easily six-digit or seven-digit net worth, possibly liquid assets. So self-insuring for $12-15k is not an issue. The question is how often would we expect to incur such $12-15k bills. If it is once every 2-5 years, then maybe yes we should buy the insurance with rider. But if it is less than once in 10 years, then maybe it's ok to self-insure. But, the problem is nobody knows these things.

Actuarial science means nothing if you are the unlucky one in a million who kena (touch wood) something. Say you can calculate that you have one in a million chance of incurring a $300k hospital bill. So you decide to self-insure. But suey suey if you kena you're screwed. So it's not just about probability but also the total impact if the low-probability event does happen.

[sgd]

Anyone can advise which is a gd hospitalization policy to take up for min cost at decent coverage?

maybe ntuc got cheaper. I get mine from a relative with another insurer no choice or need to hide during cny.

Actuarial science means nothing if you are the unlucky one in a million who kena (touch wood) something. Say you can calculate that you have one in a million chance of incurring a $300k hospital bill. So you decide to self-insure. But suey suey if you kena you're screwed. So it's not just about probability but also the total impact if the low-probability event does happen.

I guess odds increase as one ages, if you are in your 20's you can get away with most things but in your 30's most people their health starts to degrade and from 40 go downhill. Ever wonder why MIW retire you at 33 from reservist?

If you are in your 40's should get a plan don't play play, some of my old school friends are already dead before even 40 and others have chronic health issues.

[funman168]

Thanks sgd, will go check ntuc. Btw, wat plan did u get for urself & ur family?

Anyone can advise which is a gd hospitalization policy to take up for min cost at decent coverage?

maybe ntuc got cheaper. I get mine from a relative with another insurer no choice or need to hide during cny.

Actuarial science means nothing if you are the unlucky one in a million who kena (touch wood) something. Say you can calculate that you have one in a million chance of incurring a $300k hospital bill. So you decide to self-insure. But suey suey if you kena you're screwed. So it's not just about probability but also the total impact if the low-probability event does happen.

I guess odds increase as one ages, if you are in your 20's you can get away with most things but in your 30's most people their health starts to degrade and from 40 go downhill. Ever wonder why MIW retire you at 33 from reservist?

If you are in your 40's should get a plan don't play play, some of my old school friends are already dead before even 40 and others have chronic health issues.

[brattzz]

For H&S : i am taking GE's TotalShield and Supreme Health PTE Plan.

looks okay to me so far..

[sgd]

Thanks sgd, will go check ntuc. Btw, wat plan did u get for urself & ur family?

am getting from prudential

[Hongwei]

Great eastern's hospitalisation plan is good. Compare the benefits and coverage as price difference is very small.

[mrEngineer]

It pays to re-read the entire thread from the start where d.o.g answered alot of questions (especially simple ones from me). One of the most important criteria in hospitalization plans are guaranteed renewal..

[funman168]

thanks all for your response. wish there was something like an insurance broker to help compare all the plans by the companies against my needs.
Too much time n effort req if hv to go through one by one.

[d.o.g.]

thanks all for your response. wish there was something like an insurance broker to help compare all the plans by the companies against my needs.
Too much time n effort req if hv to go through one by one.

As it happens there ARE insurance brokers in Singapore. I use one myself, with the result that all my insurance policies are from different insurers. There are 2 insurers that only use tied agents - AIA and Great Eastern - so the insurance broker cannot offer their policies. So if you want a 100% overview you need to talk to 3 people: the broker, an AIA agent and a GE agent.

But even if you only use the broker you can at least avoid getting the worst policy. In my limited experience the best policy is only slightly better than the 2nd best policy. But the worst policy is really bad. So avoiding the worst is more important than getting the absolute best.

[money]

thanks all for your response. wish there was something like an insurance broker to help compare all the plans by the companies against my needs.
Too much time n effort req if hv to go through one by one.

i find the ntuc one most value-for-money. i find it less profit driven, unlike many of its listed counterparts, so it delivers more to the policy holder. However this is my personal opinion only. If it is run less efficiently, it may deliver less to the policy holders