Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Medishield and Private Shield

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Medishield and Private Shield

Insurance agents scare consumers about the high cost of medical treatment and ask them to buy a private shield. The consumers are not aware that they will have to pay a higher premium, and when they go for treatment, they have to pay a higher co-payment as well. They will be hit twice. Read these articles:
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=229
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=183

The agent also use a number of myths to get consumers to make the decision that is good for agents, but may be bad for consumers. Read this article:
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=287

Apart from paying a higher premium and co-payment, consumers may be hit hard when their claim for reimbursement is rejected due to unintended non-disclosure. Read these articles:
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=239
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=190

The only reason to go for private shield is the chance that the public hospital do not have the doctor to treat your illness. I think that this risk is low and is exaggerated. There should be more than adequate facility to be treated in our public hospital.

Those who are well off can opt to go for private shield. For the majority, where the savings is not adequate, it is better to stay with Medishield.

Tan Kin Lian

6 comments:

The Process Engineer said...: Hi Mr Tan,

Thanks for the tips posted in your blog. However, I do have a concern with regards to patients with long term hospitalization and chronic illness. Won't having a private shield better than the basic medishield plan? For this kind situation, the medical bills may go up to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. If the patient is insured with private shield and for example with GE's totalshield program, the patient may not need to pay a single cent, except for the GST. The private shield plans does not cover for GST. Correct me if I am wrong in this. What is your view on this?

Thank you.
Regards,
Zhigui; December 06, 2010 2:42 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Reply to Zhigui,
If you want to believe the insurance agent about the cost of chronic illness, go ahead and spend your money. It is your money and you can spend (or waste it) as you wish.; December 06, 2010 3:22 PM
The Process Engineer said...: Hi Mr Tan,

Thanks for the reply,

It is not about believing the insurance agent. What you have mentioned in your blog is enlightening. Just that I believe this will be limited for patients with huge medical bills. I believe getting huge medical bills will be easy nowadays if you manage to get one of those critical illness. Probably mainly due to the ever-rising medical costs in this country.

Certainly, we won't want to waste our money and we won't want to believe insurance agents blindly We want to make an intelligent and informed decision to spend the money well. We do know that there will always be some conflict of interests between the insurance agents and clients.

Regards,

Zhigui; December 07, 2010 8:35 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Reply to Zhigui

If you really suffer from a major illness that is going to cost a lot of money, the insurance company will check your past medical history to find if you have failed to disclose the condition and reject your claim.

If you think that you are not in good health and need insurance, you may face this risk.

This is why I advocate saving for your medical expenses and be treated in a subsidised ward. It is safer and better for your budget.; December 07, 2010 8:43 AM
Benjamin said...: Dear Mr Tan,

Sorry to pick a dated discussion thread but as I read about Mr Khaw's $8 hospital (out of pocket) expense again, it occurred to me that when my wife was hospitalised three years ago, GST was not reimbursable. So if GST was not reimbursable, then how could the Minister's out of pocket expense be only $8? We did not pursue this then with any great effort as we thought that was just the case.

I googled and can see that PruShield (your discussion thread was the other relevant search result) allows GST reimbursements, so it appears non-reimbursable GST is not standard practice. I believe my wife was covered under a hostpitalisation and ward policy then and not a medishield policy. 7% of a large hospital bill will impact most people, if the policy does not reimburse GST on the hospital bill.

Rgds,
Ben; February 14, 2011 2:35 PM
WeeChin said...: I am now in a private medishield plan for myself and family. Are we still able to move back to CPF Administered Medishield?

Understand during Hospital admission, type B2 or C might not have bed available. But if one is cover only by CPF medishield, will he have to pay more than he can afford?

Thank you.; August 29, 2012 12:49 AM