Do not terminate any of your current policies until you’ve done a thorough assessment of your current as well as future needs because you may not be able to get the cover back again later. 

A hospitalisation policy is basically a medical reimbursement plan for Insured who is warded in a hospital due to either accident or illness. 

The plan helps the Insured and/or the family to meet some or all of the medical expenses incurred.

A term insurance policy provides coverage for a specified period of time. The sum assured is payable only if the Insured dies within the policy term.  If the Insured dies after the policy expiry date, the family will not receive any payout.  Also, a term policy has no saving or investment element and so it does not accumulate cash value.

Endowment policy combines coverage with savings.  With this policy, the Insured would receive a sum of money when the policy matures.  However, if the Insured dies during the tenure of the policy, the family will receive the insurance payout which include the basic sum assured and accumulated bonuses/dividends, if any. 

In addition to the basic policy, Insured can enhance its coverage by adding riders such as a Hospital & Surgical rider, Critical Illness rider etc.

Eldershield is not a hospitalization plan.  It is a Long Term Care insurance policy designed to meet some or all of the costs of daily living of the Insured who become dependent on others to help them in their daily living activities such as bathing, feeding etc. 

It is an important part of the total insurance plan. In fact, based on the fact that we are living in a country with fast aging population and ever-increasing healthcare and long term care cost, you should be thinking of increasing the coverage on Eldershield instead of terminating the cover. The claim process may differ depending on what are the plan(s) the Insured is having. 

It is always tempting to stop or postpone our personal hospitalization plan to a later date.  However, the risk of doing this is high.  We may not be able to purchase a hospitalization plan when we most need it.  Common medical conditions such as raised blood pressure or cholesterol may result in exclusions and/or raised premiums.  In extreme cases, the insurer may decline the application due to medical history or condition. 

Answered by Mr. Jason Tian
Financial Consultant, Financial Alliance Pte Ltd

The best way to cover for treatment cost ( main stream treatment, ie , western medicine ) is to be insured adequately by a Hospitalization & Surgical plan.

If you are a S’porean or SPR, you must enroll yourself in one of  the Medishield Integrated H&S Plan which allows you to pay premium using your medisave. Currently, 5 life insurers carry this product and they are NTUC Income, GE Life, AIA, AVIVA and Prudential.

As for the ‘loss of work’ , I assume your concern is the loss of income after contracted any major illness and is unable to work for a long period of time.

There are 2 ways to approach this need:

(1) Get yourself insured with a critical illness insurance plan which pays you the sum assured in a lump sum upon the diagnosis of contracting any of the covered illnesses (usually 30 illnesses) 

(2) The other is to be covered by a disability income plan which pays you a monthly income when you are totally unable to work due to sickness or injury.

While both approaches have its pros and cons, the claim for CI insurance plan is more straight forward. The continuous proof of disability is required for disability income plan.

For CI insurance plan, it is indeed true that insurer pays claim only when the severity level of the illness meet the illness definition set by the insurer.

However, some insurers have responded to demand ( to cover illness at early stage) for new Critical Insurance (CI) plan. Unlike the conventional CI plan whereby the insurer would make a one-time lump sum payout upon diagnosis of any one out of the 30 CIs covered, subject to claim criteria, (www.lia.org.sg) the new CI plans make payment before the advanced stage of the illnesses.

Some even allow the policyholder to make multiple claims during the policyholder’s lifetime, subject to policy provisions.
If the plan can complement your hospitalization & surgical (H&S) coverage, to pay for expenses incurred outside hospital, able to replace your income during this period of hardship (Disability Income Insurance) and to reduce your financial stress, this could be the most appropriate and suitable plan that you are seeking for.

As comprehensive as such plan could be it comes with a price-tag. Not only we need to access the cost and benefits of the plans, one need to fully understand the features & medical terms of such plans. And, it is usually confusing.

Hence, to find the suitable products that suit your needs and budget, I suggest that you talk to one that has multi-representation of insurers as such adviser is more likely to find you the value products that suit your needs.

Answered by Mr. Chew Hock Beng
Chartered Financial Consultant,
Chartered Financial Underwriter, Financial Alliance Pte Ltd