Saturday, April 2, 2011

Healthcare and Insurance

I was watching the movie "Jumper" the other night - and this dialogue caught my attention - "Everything has consequences!"

About a decade ago - I started both Dad and Mum on the medishield scheme - long before the private insurers took over with their offering of various enhanced schemes.

I had started them on the Medishield Enhanced Scheme (or something along that line) and at their age - I was only paying around S$600 plus annually each for Class A. Over the years - we were blessed with their good health and consequently almost nil claim. With the years - and with the privatization of the medishield schemes, the premiums for their coverage went up - it was S$1400 or S$1500 at Class C (the lowest category) - so there is a downgrade of the class.

Anyway, with Dad's recent hospitalization up till his demise - we had placed him in a Class A ward - because we wanted privacy so visitors would not disturb the other patients if it was a shared one - and also we wanted him to be comfortable - the total bill came up to almost $22,000 or thereabouts. Covering him meant that almost 48 percent was paid by the insurer - so we paid about 53%. If he had been placed at Class B1 or B2 - the co-payment or reimbursements would have been lower.

The point of this posting is this - if you do not currently have any medical/hospitalization cover - do it. If you do not incur any claim - count yourself lucky - and based on the principle of pooling in insurance - you are 'helping' those who might unfortunately need to incur the increasingly high healthcare costs.

(A side point - and this is not my reason for posting - :p - a nephew recently joined an independent financial advisory - after some years with a local insurer - so he can sell products across the industry. lewis_law@hotmail.com - if you want another option to consider).

Always,

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