Hi Mr Tan, do you think it is necessary to buy an integrated shield plan to get better healthcare (private hospitals) as opposed to just relying on Medishield Life?
REPLY
This is not necessary, especially for older people.
I wish to share the experience of an elderly lady. She was encouraged by the agent to convert from a basic plan to a A plan that covers treatment in a private hospital.
She was diagnosed for colon cancer after a year. As she had an A plan, she was advised to go to a private hospital. She incurred a bill of $300,000.
The insurance company rejected her claim, as she did not disclose that she had diabetes at the time of upgrading. She said that the agent did not ask her about this condition. She was not educated in English and relied entirely on the agent to handle the upgrading.
The insurance company finally offered to pay $80,000 for her treatment. This was probably the amount that would have been paid under Medishield Life.
If she had remained on Medishield Life, she would have been fully covered (except for the co-insurance). By upgrading to the A plan, she had incurred a large bill that was not covered.
When a person is elderly, they are likely to have a chronic condition, such as diabetes or high blood pressure or high cholesterol. They may not be aware about it or may not be aware that it has to be declared. It is risky to upgrade a Shield plan at an advanced age.
2 comments:
Besides NTUC , other insurance companies pay 35% to 40% commission for shield plan to the insurance agents. Imagine an elderly buying/upgrading to a private hospital plan the premium can be as high as $3000. The commission can be 40% of $3000 or $1200 into the agent's pocket . Is it bad? Wow! it is fantastic. Is it a wonder why insurance agents are VERY keen to twist/switch one shield plan to another? It is very lucrative, right ?
But agents must make sure it is incepted or accepted without a glitch and delay. How?
Make sure there is nothing to delay at the underwriting stage, ie. make sure the elderly apllicant is FREE OF MEDICAL CONDITION and underwritten as standard life. You see now why agents always tell the customers "no need to declare this or that" or the best advice to customer is 'no need one' the insurer dunno one.' That is why the agents can fill up the application forms with the customer "PRESIGNING" the form.
So you think the agents hard up for business? You dunno...it is so lucrative.
The problem is MAS is always dunno too.
In Singapore nowadays the insurance agents are a bunch of cheats and unethical. Why do they care whetehr their victims are young or old, what they see in them is MONEY to squeeze out.
This must be the case for MAS to eliminate them.
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