Overwhelming response to Enhanced Incomeshield

24 June, 2006

Editor
Forum Page
Straits Times

We refer to the letter by Mr Harry Chia Kim Seng, “Why were some not told of Enhanced Incomeshield?” (Straits Times, 23 June).

NTUC Income introduced the Enhanced Incomeshield plan on 1 May 2006. Compared to the basic plan, the enhanced plan provides full coverage (excluding the mandatory deductible and co-insurance), but it requires payment of a slightly higher premium.

The details of the new plans were announced in the media and in our website, www.income.coop.

As this is a different plan, we asked our insurance advisers to contact the existing customers and advice them individually of the option to upgrade to the enhanced plan.

The response was overwhelming.We received 20,000 requests within a few weeks. My office colleagues were not able to cope with the large number of requests. Some have resigned due to the work pressure. We are trying to cope with this situation and to clear the backlog of work.

We have now decided to implement a different approach. We will be writing to all existing policyholders in batches over the next 12 months. We will be telling them about the new plan, and include a FAQ (frequently asked questions).

As we have 800,000 policyholders, we still have to handle 65,000 policyholders each month. We expect it to be a challenging exercise. We also have to recruit and train the additional people to handle the expected large volume of requests.

I hope that our policyholders can be patient and wait for the letter to be sent to them over the next 12 months. In the meantime, they are covered under the basic plan, which does cover a large part of the medical expenses anyway, subject to the existing limits.

More information on the Enhanced Incomeshield plan is available at our website, www.income.coop/insurance/enhanceshield.

Tan Kin Lian
Chief Executive Officer
NTUC Income