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 =)

Let me just go through the basic facts on Medishield:

1) MediShield is an individual catastrophic medical insurance designed to help Singaporeans pay part of  the large hospitalisation bills (80% only) for treatment of serious illnesses or prolonged hospitalisations at Class B2/C wards in restructured hospitals.

2) MediShield covers hospitalisation expenses and certain approved outpatient treatments, such as kidney dialysis, chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer treatment.

3) For Singaporeans who plan to use Class B1 or higher ward classes, you may wish to consider purchasing Medisave-approved private Integrated Shield Plans 

4) Expenses for treatments sought overseas cannot be claimed from MediShield but you can do so for private Intergrated Shield Plans.

5) MediShield claim for hospital stays in higher class wards or private hospital will be calculated based on a percentage(35%) of your hospital bill. Similarly, if you go for unsubsidised day surgery, your MediShield claim will be calculated based on a percentage(35%) of your bill

6) MediShield has Deductible and Co-insurance features which are payable with your Medisave or cash first, before the rest of the claim is payable from MediShield.

For all the above facts, the more you should privatise your basic shield plan because all private insurers provide ‘As-Charged’ basis for all the hospital bills. This will come out particularly very useful especially if you happen to be admitted for a long stay. The earlier you upgrade the plan, the less hassle you will face due to your health conditions. You do not want to face the situation whereby you will be subject to many exclusions.

If you have spare money, i will also advise you to go for the cash riders that can cover both the co-insurance and deductible expenses. So far, only NTUC and Aviva does not provides full coverage despite paying for the riders. The rest of the company (Pru, AIA & GE) does provide 100% coverage from the first dollar. I will STRONGLY encourage you to do so if you haven’t gotten one.

Faster inform your parents and act NOW! Don’t wait till things to happen and you regret!

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.