Insurance for Children

[cmm]

lifestylelink:

I covered my son for H&S with NTUC Enhanced Incomeshield. Thank goodness, but I made a mistake of not taking the rider. He just went for hernia repair and I had to pay $3k out front. :stupid: Is co-pay required for each hospitalisation or for one calendar year?

Co-insurance is payable for each hospitalisation. Deductible is by per policy year.

Does your hubby's company offer medical cover for your son?

[lifestylelink]

cmm:

lifestylelink:

I covered my son for H&S with NTUC Enhanced Incomeshield. Thank goodness, but I made a mistake of not taking the rider. He just went for hernia repair and I had to pay $3k out front. :stupid: Is co-pay required for each hospitalisation or for one calendar year?

Co-insurance is payable for each hospitalisation. Deductible is by per policy year.

Does your hubby's company offer medical cover for your son?

My hubby's company do not offer medical cover for my son, my company does but I decided to skip because it is too expensive. I suppose I'll just take up the rider next year. $3k is for deductible. That amount can cover my son rider fees for at least 25 years, without any claim. So folks out there, learn from my lesson.

[Mandie]

yeah, agreed, always take a rider, small amount but helps alot in case of …anything

[lifestylelink]

insider:

I am very kiasu in terms of insurance planning. My first endowment policy was bought at around age 18 and it had since matured and had collected the sum.


I always advise against wife tagging on husband’s company medical insurance policy or vice versa unless such policy is of those portable types (meaning if one day the husband resigns or gets retrenched, the husband can actually continue with the cover by paying on own instead of once leaves the company, the cover lapses at the same time).

We take for example:

Husband at aged 30 is covered by company’s medical insurance which also includes spouse at aged 28. So, the spouse has this ‘false sense of security’ that she is covered.

Then, husband gets retrenched at age 50 and cover is not portable. At that point, both will be ‘naked’ without any medical cover and it maybe difficult to buy one from scratch as within that 20 years, some illnesses may have happened to either one of them and thereby rendering him/her ‘uninsurable’ or even if insurable, at a premium of a high load.

Usually children’s medical insurance is covered under parents but parents may consider letting their kids have independent cover once they hit 18 years old so that the continuity of the cover is more assured.

Personally, my medical insurance cover is under AXA Premier Care (http://www.axalife.com.sg/products/health_premier.html). Prior to buying this, I was under Asia Life. Prior to buying from Asia Life, I did my homework by comparing all the available medical insurance covers in the market and after comparing apple to apple, deemed it as the best. But after one claim, it loaded my premium by about 40% and I re-surveyed the market to decide on AXA Premier Care which I find is value for money too (think the attractive part is the no claim discount of up to 30% if you have no claims for the past three years).

My claims experience with AXA Premier Care so far is positive.

Do note that Asia Life (good value for money) covers day surgery but AXA Premier Care requires hospitalization of a minimum 12 hours before qualifying for claims (which I have argued with them it is so outdated since now so many surgeries can be performed as day surgery). Anyway, AXA is flexible in reimbursing claims for day surgery of less than 12 hours (I got mine).

PS1: I know can buy medical cover through CPF but I am leaving my CPF money for old age needs…

PS2: A recent comparison of yields and benefits of endowment policies among the different insurance company seem to point to the direction that NTUC is giving the best buy (I do my own homework when buying insurance. Get as many proposals as I can for the same amount of premium and same amount of protection and then scrutinise one by one).

KEY SUMMARY:

Don't be trapped by a false sense of security that your company provides you with medical cover and then you are safe. If such cover is not portable, it maybe wise for you to purchase an external one even at some additional cost as you really don't know what will happen to your job and your 'insurability' at the point when you leave your company...

Totally agree with you. Would you mind share the AXA premier care premium and coverage? So far, my experience with NTUC is best, especially when it comes to H&S. They are by far the fastest payee and most generous payer. Many people get fooled by the seemingly lower premium and got caught when they realised that there are so many limits to the claimable items.

[cmm]

A very important point to note when buying medical plans is to check if they are guaranteed renewable. This simply means that the insurer cannot refuse you renewal provided:


1. you pay premiums on time.
2. lifetime limits have not been reached.

Plans without guaranteed renewablity allows the insurer at their discretion, to load the policyholder with higher premiums at renewal, and/or reduce benefits payable, or even refuse renewal entirely (if the claim is major enough). Imagine someone who's been paying premiums for 10 years without claim. Then he's diagnosed with kidney failure and requires kidney dialysis. He makes a claim for the expense through his medical plan for the first year. At renewal, the insurer tells him they don't want his business anymore.

insider:

Note 1: AXA Premier Care is under AXA Life while AXA SmartCare is under AXA Insurance (look similar but seems like different entities).

Note that AXA Premier Care is guaranteed renewable whereas SmartCare is not.