Boost your health insurance portfolio
Learn 4 ways to invest in a health insurance portfolio
The healthcare landscape isn’t a kind one these days.
Chances are — you’re living a fast-paced lifestyle chock full of pressure. You probably find your phone ringing from work calls or emails even after hours or on weekends. You find yourself torn between focusing on your career, family and friends. With the amount of physical and mental strain we put ourselves through on a daily basis, we find ourselves plagued with a myriad of health issues.
Of course, it is possible to fix or ease many health conditions now with advanced medical treatments and technologies, but such solutions also come at a steep price with healthcare cost at a constant hike. Whether you can comfortably pay for such treatment is a different matter. You might not be able to return to work immediately after recovery, and might even have to hire a caregiver. You might have ailing parents getting on age and dependent on you to support them. If you have a growing family, things get even more complicated.
What measures can you take?
Having an all-rounded health insurance portfolio is to ensure that you’re adequately covered against the various health issues that might afflict you.
Start by bolstering yourself and your loved ones with these essentials:
- Essential #1: Support MediShield Life with an Integrated Shield Plan (IP)
MediShield Life is a basic health insurance scheme that provides Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents lifelong protection against healthcare bills in the event of hospitalisation. It covers costs for Class B2/C Wards in restructured hospitals. If you plan to stay in a Class A/B1 Ward in a restructured hospital or go to a private hospital when you are hospitalised, you can consider purchasing a MediSave-approved private Integrated Shield Plan (IP).
GREAT SupremeHealth, is an IP that provides pre and post-hospitalisation coverage, and extends the coverage to specialist doctors and private hospitals. You can also enjoy higher annual claim limits and coverage at private hospitals, or A or B1 wards in restructured hospitals. Furthermore, the premiums can also be partially or fully paid by MediSave1. Its coverage also extends to 120 days before and up to 365 days after your hospitalisation.
To enhance your coverage, you can supplement your GREAT SupremeHealth with GREAT TotalCare - a supplementary plan to help cover part of your out-of-pocket expenses such as deductibles and co-insurance.
- Essential #2: Ease your cashflow even when hospitalised
It is highly stressful to be hospitalised, knowing that your bill is going up with every minute you spend lying on a hospital bed. The stress delays your recovery and hospital discharge; the bill keeps escalating, subjecting you to even more stress — a vicious cycle to be trapped within.
Break the cycle with GREAT Hospital Cash, a hospital cash insurance plan that pays you up to S$600 for each day you're hospitalised due to illness, additional payout of up to S$1,200# per day if you are warded in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This payout can be spent any way you prefer — a financial freedom that eliminates any lingering stress you might experience from the hospitalisation ordeal. You can also receive an additional lump sum of up to S$1,800 with at least 3 days of hospitalisation, and another payout of up to S$1,800 if surgery2 is needed.
- Essential #3: Face the what-ifs of Critical Illness (CI) with confidence
“It will never happen to me.” Don’t let those be your famous last words. In fact, cancer — one of the top three CI alongside heart attack and stroke — happens to 1 in 4 Singaporeans*. CI strikes when you least expect it, dealing devastating blows to your health and finances. Both risks and stakes are always at an all-time high.
Alleviate any potential financial concerns over getting diagnosed with CI with GREAT Critical Cover, which provides 100% lump sum payout3 for all stages of CI, including early, intermediate and critical. GREAT Critical Cover: Complete offers comprehensive coverage over 53 CI, whereas GREAT Critical Cover: Top 3 CIs provides protection against cancer, heart attack and stroke — the top 3 most claimed CI conditions – and offers a 100% lump sum payout3 regardless of stage diagnosed. If you already have some CI coverage but wish to boost your protection against the most common CI, you may consider GREAT Critical Cover: Top 3 CIs.
Most CI aren't just a one-off incident. You can suffer from different types of CI or even have re-occurrences for a CI that had supposedly passed. Thus, it is important to ensure that your CI insurance plan doesn’t expire after protecting you once. Stack on the Protect Me Again rider and get 100% lump sum payout3 for up to two additional CI occurences4. This means your CI coverage continues over and over again, beyond your first claim — the ultimate guard you need against the uncertainties of CI.
- Essential #4: Protect yourself in the event of disability
You’ll probably never think twice about your ability to see or hear, nor thank your hands and feet for granting you the mobility to go about your daily activities. But disability is a life-altering event you need to take precautions for, and you ought to get started if you haven’t.
CareShield Life, the national long-term care insurance scheme, offers payouts when the individual is unable to perform at least 3 Activities of Daily Living5 (ADLs). Supplementary plans, like GREAT CareShield, can provide financial support from the inability to perform 1 out of 6 ADLs. You can receive a lump sum Initial Benefit of up to S$15,000 and monthly payouts, and get your premiums waived when you are unable to perform 1 ADL6.
Like CareShield Life, premiums for GREAT CareShield can be fully or partially paid using your MediSave funds subject to a yearly limit of S$600 per life assured, It is important to ensure that you have the support no matter how severe the disability.
Why is it important to boost our health insurance portfolio?
Stay prepared so you’ll never be caught off-guard. You’re never invulnerable when it comes to health, but you can be ready.
Though Integrated Shield plans and a hospital cash plan can help cover hospitalisation costs or outpatient treatment fees, a critical illness plan ensures that you have the financial safety net to support your recovery if you are diagnosed with a CI. The payout from such CI plan can support you in ways such as income replacement or to support your household expenses, or spend it on whatever you decide takes priority. In the event of disability which may have lifelong impact to your daily living, a disability insurance provides payouts that can help alleviate potentially high medical and caregiving expenses for a prolonged period of time.
Evaluate your needs and equip yourself and your loved ones with a robust health insurance portfolio. Start by getting in touch with us today.
FAQs on Health Insurance Portfolios:
1. What is a health insurance portfolio?
Health insurance is a long-term commitment you make to protect you and your loved ones against the healthcare cost in the event of injury, disability or serious illness. To have a robust health insurance portfolio is to be adequately covered so that you can get sufficient financial and medical support should the need arises.
2. How do I manage my health insurance portfolio better?
The ideal is to get yourself covered as early as you can. To achieve that, you should sign-up for health insurance plans while you’re younger and healthier and your premium is lower. Make sure you are adequately and comprehensively covered without any blind spots — get in touch with our friendly Financial Representative for advice.
3. When should I review my health insurance portfolio?
Don’t wait for life-changing events — such as accidents or medical diagnoses — to hit. Your premiums will be much more
expensive by then, and you might be limited on policies you can sign up for. With inflating healthcare expenses, you should frequently review your policies to ensure that the sum insured is sufficient.
4. How is this different from a life insurance portfolio?
A health insurance guards you in the event of hospitalisation and medical treatment with medical cost coverage and payouts. A life insurance consists of wealth accumulation and retirement planning that boost your lifestyle, and also safeguards your loved ones in the event of your untimely death.
GREAT SupremeHealth + GREAT TotalCare
Cover up to 95% of your total hospitalisation bills for life
Source:
* Singapore Cancer Society https://www.singaporecancersociety.org.sg/learn-about-cancer/cancer-basics/common-types-of-cancer-in-singapore.html
Footnotes:
1 Premiums payable by MediSave is up to the Additional Withdrawal Limits or MediSave Withdrawal Limits as set out by the Ministry of Health.
2 Excluding day surgery, and subject to terms and conditions.
3 Terms and conditions apply.
4 Coverage restores to 100% after 12 months from the date of diagnosis for the most recently diagnosed critical illness, for a subsequent claim of a different critical illness. Coverage restores to 100% after 24 months from the date of diagnosis of the immediately preceding applicable critical illness for recurrent critical illness.
5 Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) are: washing, toileting, dressing, feeding, walking or moving around and transferring.
6 All benefits are subject to applicable deferment period.
#Additional Daily Hospital Cash Benefit - Intensive Care Unit (ICU) will be payable for each day that the life assured undergoes hospitalisation in an ICU due to an illness or injury, up to a maximum period of 60 days for each hospitalisation. For such hospitalisation in an ICU beyond 60 days, we will treat such hospitalisation as that in a normal ward.
Disclaimers:
This advertisement has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
GREAT TotalCare is not a MediSave-approved Integrated Shield plan and premiums are not payable using MediSave. GREAT TotalCare is designed to complement the benefits offered under GREAT SupremeHealth.
The information presented is for general information only and does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of any particular person.
This is only product information provided by us. You may wish to seek advice from a qualified adviser before buying the product. If you choose not to seek advice from a qualified adviser, you should consider whether the product is suitable for you. Buying health insurance products that are not suitable for you may impact your ability to finance your future healthcare needs.
If you decide that the policy is not suitable after purchasing the policy, you may terminate the policy in accordance with the free-look provision, if any, and the insurer may recover from you any expense incurred by the insurer in underwriting the policy.
These policies are protected under the Policy Owners’ Protection Scheme which is administered by the Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation (SDIC). Coverage for your policy is automatic and no further action is required from you. For more information on the types of benefits that are covered under the scheme as well as the limits of coverage, where applicable, please contact us or visit the Life Insurance Association (LIA) or SDIC websites (www.lia.org.sg or www.sdic.org.sg).
Information correct as at 8 September 2023.
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