Yesterday i just read on newspaper that there are about 100 thousands Singaporeans that are not yet covered under the basic Medi-Shield provided by the government. Out of these group of people, housewives made up the most due to the fact that they are not working and they don’t see the need or don’t have the ability to protect themselves.

Based on 2008 records, there are 85% of Singaporean covered under the basic Medi-save.  For people aged between 21-65 years old, there are 85%  of women that are covered and 91% of men have also opt in for the shield plan.

Such figures are very worrying because this shows how vulnerable are the housewives in Singapore. Basically the reason for them not getting any shield plans is because of the fact that they are not working and most of them think they should not spend such money using their CPF money. However such money is the last thing that they should be saving on. Moreover women live longer than men and face more years of being ill towards the end of their lives. On average, women live up to 82 years and suffer 11 years of disability. Men on average live up to 77 years and suffer eight years of disability.

Most women are not working because they have decided to stay at home to take care of the children and it is the act of mother love. Hence shouldn’t the husband ensure that their lovely wife has the basic hospitalisation protection? In case some of you don’t know that as a family, we can use our CPF to purchase a hospitalisaton plan for our loved ones especially those who are not working.  It can be either children buying for parents, husband buying for spouse or parents buying for kids.

It is time that husbands out there should start to shower more concern for their wives by getting a shield plan for her. For those children who have been working, you may also considered getting one for your parents because if they ever incurred huge amount of medical bills, ALL the burden will fall on you. So it’s either you pay abit now to solve future problem or you can wait and pay one lump sum the next time. It’s something for you to ponder.

There are so many things that we can save and in my opinion, insurance and hospitalisation plans are the last thing that peopel should save on. I mean can you imagine incurred huge amount of medical bills when you are not working and have no abiility to pay for it? Isn’t it worse than you paying abit of your money out of the monthly budget that you have for yourself? I know most people will not think it is necessary and have the mindset that such unlucky event will not happen to them. But they don’t know the fact that accident & hospitalisation can happen to anyone at anytime.

As a matter of fact, Medi-shield provides very basic coverage and it is never enough in today’s context because of the rising medical costs. It is designed to help with large hospitalisation bills for the treatment of serious illnesses or prolonged hospitalisation at Class B2/C wards in restructured hospitals.  Therefore I have always strongly encouraged my clients to upgrade their Medi-shield to a private insurance company to enjoy the ‘As-charged’ basis coverage. For people who like to know more about it, feel free to drop me an email or give me a call  @ 96157116 for a FREE consultation =)

At any time, we should stay focus on the importance of protecting our health and income. Firstly, we should ensure that we are covered by hospitalisation plan, e.g. private shield plans offer by many insurers such as NTUC Income, Prudential, Great Eastern. You can use CPF Medisave to pay for the main plan, and you are encouraged strongly to get the rider to cover the deductible and co-insurance with cash payment. Most of my client ignored the importance of getting the rider because they believe that chances of happening is low but i always tell them that accident happens when you least expected it. Are you willing to take the chance to leave your family with financial burden?

Secondly, get yourselves covered with at least one whole-life insurance or limited paying term life insurance and supplement the shortage with term insurance that cover the 30 critical illness (eg. Cancer, heart attack). The coverage required should be about 5-10 times your annual salary. Changing environment and living standards have made us more susceptible to these critical illnesses. Ironically, with the advancement of medical treatment, most of the illnesses can be treated if detected early, though with high medical cost. Hence, we need lump-sum payout from life insurance to help to cover some initial medical assistance required and also to cover the loss of income for 1-3 years when undergoing treatment.

Thirdly, set aside an emergency fund of at least 6-12months of your family expenses. This method of saving will really ensure that in times like this, you are not scared of anything and even open up to more investment opportunities. This is another area that i strongly avocate my client to practise. Money is just like bullet in war. You got to have it when you need to fire.

Only when you have put aside money for the above health and income protection plans should you start to consider accumulating your wealth and enhancing it with higher returns. Since planning for family is not an easy thing, it would be better if there is common financial vision between husband and wife. At least for sure, you won’t end up in a position where one save money and one spend money.

Coming 1 Dec 08, hospital bill in B2/C wards is expected to be covered by MediShield Scheme by up to 80%, up from the current 60% cap limit. This of course, comes with increase in premium, from less than $1 to $40 per month increase in premium. The new premium is shown in the table below.

The annual Medisave withdrawal limit will be raised to $1,150 for policyholders who are above 80 years old, while it still remains at $800 for the rest of the policyholders. Also, the Government will also be topping up the Medisave accounts in September 08 for those above 50 years old, which range from $150 to $550. The enhanced coverage for MediShield can be found at MOH website here.

For those people who are concerned about how to deal with the rising hospitalisation costs, please drop me an email for more infor.