Friday, April 15, 2011

Parent without health insurance

Hi Mr Tan,
My mother is 65 and is not covered under health insurance. I am not able to get insurance for her as she has pre existing high blood pressure, high cholestrol and dibaetes. She is under chronic medication. The last check up the doctor says that her cholestrol level and blood pressure is in normal range but still advise her to continue taking the medication.

I know Aviva has a Shield plan with moratorium by which we can apply under moratorum but all existing conditions will be excluded. I am wondering if it is still worth it to buy the shield plan as it now only covers illnesses that is not a result of the pre existing conditions. The premium for eldery is quite significant. Thanks for any advice.

REPLY
There is no point in buying heatlh insurance where so many medical conditions are excluded.

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4 comments:

Spur said...

Aviva's moratorium underwriting is actually very strict -- don't believe the salesman talk. There are many diseases & conditions which are permanently excluded right from the start -- moratorium no use. Pulmonary hypertension and chronic diabetes are 2 of these diseases. Furthermore, if your mum had previously been rejected by other insurers, then this moratorium underwriting also no use. I.e. all relevant pre-existing diseases will be permanently excluded.

Even if your pre-existing diseases are not in the permanently excluded list, in order to ultimately benefit from the moratorium underwriting, you MUST NOT see doctor or take any medication for your pre-existing disease OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS. That's saying you cannot take any high cholesterol medicine or see doctor for this, otherwise the moratorium fails, and your high cholesterol will be permanently excluded.

Best bet is to maintain long-term treatment plan in Polyclinic, and save up rainy day fund for C Class hospital ward. You can pump some of this rainy day savings into your mum's Medisave to earn the 5% interest. You can also use $300 of Medisave per year for polyclinic treatment of hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol.

But don't pump in all your cash savings -- you still need some cash becoz there is Medisave usage limits for hospital wards and operations.

April 15, 2011 3:46 PM
Vincent Sear said...

Insurance companies are business enterprises. They do fulfill a social function but they're not social services. Turn the table around and ask yourself, if you're investing in or running an insurance company, would you insure someone with cancer, this or that illness? It's just fair commonsense that you either load the premium, exclude coverage the condition or decline outright if the case is too serious.

With existing conditions, I don't blame insurance companies for imposing loadings or exclusions. However, I agree with TKL that it's not worth the while buying insurance by now. Save and invest more and self-insure.

April 15, 2011 3:54 PM
yujuan said...

Already terminated my Living Policy, bought under Mr. Tan's days at NTUC Income. Got cheated by the agent who sold me the Policy, all she emphasied was should I be striken by cancer, I would be covered by this insurance to pay for expensive medical treatment.
Much later, until a few years ago, that I was told by NTUC, could not
claim at the initial stages of diagnosis, only get claims when I would be on the verge of death.
Why should I leave claim money for my children to use after death. It defeats the purpose of buying this Policy. Makes me stop listening to Agents' smooth talk, told them to fly kites.

April 16, 2011 1:11 PM
Anonymous said...

Many still fail to understand the meaning of insurance. Insurance is purely an underwriting an uncertain risk. Isn't it ? As discussed above about pre existing illness, that that would certainly be not part of something that is uncertain, as it a risk that is certain already.

That's why many of insurance adviser's would advise, do get insured early when you are healthy. But, many of the people would ward off such advise, by telling the adviser, "I am healthy what ? Why do I need insurance ? I exercise everyday. I keep fit what.". So, as a sincere adviser is not smooth talking, but is making somebody out there aware of that we are only making an approach to make you understand now that they are trying to cover you against an unknown risk.

Some more comments, "Wait and see". At this very moment, the person is detaching himself from covering the uncertainity and take a risk of absorbing the risk from the very next step when he a walks away not listening the adviser. Is it not that the person himself agreed not to listen to the adviser because he ready to absorb the risk himself.

Everyone out there must ask these 3 simple questions to himself:
Q. Can I change my past ?
A. Shouldn't the answer be "NO".
Q. Do I know about the future ?
A. Shouldn't the answer be "NO".
Q. What do I know then that is in my control ?
A. Shouldn't the answer be "Of course ! "NOW" !".

So, it is only NOW that you have in your control and only thing that you can control.

Many a times, by just passing by an adviser without giving it an ear what he had to say. "I have.. I have..".

The Adviser kept wondering, "What did he have. I haven't even offered him anything yet. Sure, this person might be a supernatural person to read through my my mind."

For now, these are few of the experiences that I could share. I am sure, many more I would experience that I would be sharing in my future endeavors.

"Listening is an art, all it needs is good ears !!"

August 03, 2015 2:02 AM

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