Why Singapore women should set aside money for health insurance – and how to do it smartly
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Why Singapore women should set aside coin for wellness insurance – and how to do it smartly
It'due south all almost protecting both your health and your wealth, while balancing your protection and savings needs.
In partnership with UOB.
Whether yous're already insured or not, yous should discover out more than about wellness insurance to safeguard your wellness and well-beingness. (Photo: Freepik; Art: Chern Ling)
24 Sep 2022 07:09AM (Updated: 21 October 2022 12:52PM)
Since turning 40, I've found myself thinking a lot more about my health and mortality. When I go for my annual health screening, I'grand reminded that I'chiliad of the historic period when I should start including sure screenings like mammograms equally I'g now at higher risk of chest cancer.
Information technology is too at this age that I come across more elderly loved ones and relatives laissez passer abroad or be diagnosed with major ailments. The uncertainties in life feel even more pronounced over the by year as I'm inundated almost daily by news of COVID-xix.
Amid these sobering thoughts, I count myself lucky that I have not had any major health scares and have the peace of mind that should I be struck by any misfortune health-wise, my husband would not be financially burdened with caring for me or our children.
I bought my first health insurance policy once I started working – and made certain to review my policies with major life changes, like when my outset child came along.
Notwithstanding, this is non the case for anybody.
Even as more women in Singapore are placing a priority on growing their savings, more than 1 in four women are still non sufficiently protecting their savings with insurance, in the effect of a critical illness. This is according to a 2022 survey conducted by United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Prudential Singapore of more than than 800 women in Singapore.
Regardless of the life stage we are in, it is important to ensure we have the right insurance in place to see u.s. through health crises and higher healthcare-related expenses as we historic period.
CNA Women asked industry experts for useful tips on how women tin can use health insurance to safeguard their health and well-being.
KNOW WHAT IS Available
Health insurance is what would help y'all pay for your healthcare costs in the event of an injury, disease or disability.
There are v chief types of health insurance, one of which is hospital and surgical insurance. Singaporeans and Permanent Residents are automatically covered nether MediShield Life, regardless of age and wellness condition.
Administered by the Cardinal Provident Fund Board, the basic hospital and surgical insurance plan helps to pay for large infirmary bills and selected costly outpatient treatments, such as dialysis and chemotherapy.
MediShield Life covers the basics, like hospitalisation in B2 and C wards in public hospitals. But if you lot prefer to be admitted to a better type ward or individual hospital, you can get additional coverage past upgrading to an Integrated Shield Plan provided by individual insurance companies.
Other wellness insurance includes critical illness insurance, which gives yous a lump sum to assist with expenses if yous are diagnosed with a major illness like cancer, and hospital cash insurance, which gives you a fixed amount of cash for each day you are hospitalised.
Health insurance likewise includes disability income insurance – this replaces your income when you are disabled and unable to work – and long-term care or severe disability insurance like ElderShield, which will pay for the intendance you lot demand if you are severely disabled.
Start As Soon AS POSSIBLE
Topics like cancer and death may not feel like pressing issues when y'all are young. But financial experts recommend getting health insurance every bit soon every bit you lot tin can afford to and when you are in good health.
If yous wish to buy individual health insurance, you lot should do so before y'all develop medical bug, otherwise the insurer may exclude coverage of those weather in your policy, said R Sivanithy, Principal Trainer at Institute for Financial Literacy (IFL), a collaboration between Singapore'due south national financial education programme MoneySense, and Singapore Polytechnic Enterprise.
"There are certain types of illnesses or conditions such as chest, ovarian and cervical cancers that can afflict women at whatsoever stage of their adult life. And then, it would be appropriate to ensure yous accept proper critical affliction cover, which can replace any lost income due to inability to piece of work for a period of fourth dimension," he said.
Eugenia Tan, Caput of Emerging Flush and Mass Segments at Prudential Singapore, said: "Anybody should have basic health insurance in place correct from birth. Equally nosotros grow older and our needs change, we should add together on coverage accordingly."
For instance, when you're planning to have children, you can consider motherhood insurance that provides coverage in the result of complications during the pregnancy and after birth, she said.
"Regardless of the life stage you are at, hospitalisation should exist taken care of commencement. This is peculiarly if you lot prefer staying in a private hospital or in A, B1, B2 and C wards," said Chung Shaw Bee, Caput of Deposits and Wealth Management at UOB. "If you are currently earning an income, commencement looking into critical illnesses and inability coverage."
CONSIDER THE COVERAGE You Demand
The 2022 Protection Gap Study by the Life Insurance Association Singapore (LIA) noted that while each individual needs an estimated S$317,000 in critical disease protection needs, the average Singaporean merely has around S$60,000 in coverage, leaving a critical illness protection gap of around S$257,000.
The disquisitional affliction protection gap is the shortfall in the amount of money needed to meet one's fiscal needs before one is able to return to work.
Fiscal experts likewise propose maintaining a savings rest of at to the lowest degree half-dozen months of your monthly expenses equally emergency funds.
The amount you demand for a rainy mean solar day may be even higher if you have dependants and have to factor in their daily needs if yous are unable to provide income for them over an extended period of time.
And as every woman has her own specific needs and expectations of care, industry experts said it is important to work with a qualified financial consultant or adviser to figure out how much coverage you lot require.
To save on premium costs, you tin can have advantage of banking company perks, such as complimentary female-related cancer insurance coverage from the UOB Lady's Savings Account. It provides free coverage of upwardly to S$200,000 from Prudential for six female person cancers and as well gives you lot other medical, dental and wellness benefits.
BALANCE PROTECTION WITH AFFORDABILITY
While you want to be adequately protected from unforeseen circumstances, the insurance premiums should also be affordable over the long-term – health insurance premiums do increase with historic period and should not compromise other important life goals, such equally saving for retirement.
"When deciding on the corporeality of health insurance to buy, y'all should consider balancing your hospital or ward grade preference and the level of income protection that you would desire should you fall sick or go disabled, confronting the long-term affordability of supplementary plans," said IFL's Sivanithy.
He noted that about 70 per cent of Singapore residents have Integrated Shield Plans, where some cover for a higher-blazon ward (A or B1) in a public hospital, while others cover admission into a individual hospital.
Still, ii-thirds of all patients cull B2 or C subsidised wards when they are admitted to hospitals, such that they may not take fully enjoyed the benefits of the plans, he said.
"Yous should ever aim to save earlier y'all spend every month," he added. "Y'all don't want to be insurance-rich but cash-poor."
Though this tin vary amongst individuals, he recommended a minimum savings of at least 10 per cent of your net pay, and not spending more than 10 per cent of your annual income on insurance premiums, as a guideline.
Buy WHAT MEETS YOUR NEEDS
Y'all should also only buy what you need past taking into account your family unit health history, fiscal state of affairs, assets, liabilities and dependants' needs.
Over-insuring happens when your coverage is more than your electric current liabilities and your family's potential loss of income, said Foliage Tan, a personal wealth manager with 25 years of experience in managing insurance and retirement portfolios.
"To forbid that, yous have to know what your liabilities and potential financial impact to y'all and your family are, should arduousness strike. The purpose of insurance is to ensure minimal financial impact to y'all and your family unit in such a situation," she said, while recommending allocating 10-fifteen per cent of your monthly income to wellness insurance.
Prudential's Tan noted it is quite rare to see customers over-insure.
In fact, the LIA report showed that other than having a critical illness protection gap, a working adult in Singapore also has an average bloodshed protection gap of effectually South$170,000. The mortality protection gap is the shortfall in the amount of coin needed to run across a family unit's fiscal needs in the event of one's death.
"The key point to be mindful of, is to purchase insurance that meets i's unique needs and to avert duplication of coverage," she said. And so cultivate a habit of reviewing your insurance portfolio at to the lowest degree once a twelvemonth with a financial adviser representative, to ensure you're rightly insured.
You might as well want to do so with with every life milestone, like when yous showtime a family, while staying upwardly-to-date with any major changes in premiums, benefits or policy rules to ensure your coverage remains relevant.
Be Enlightened THAT Not EVERYTHING IS COVERED
It is also important to understand the features of your policies and their exclusions. While MediShield Life covers pre-existing weather, almost private insurance policies do not practise so.
Typically, outpatient treatments, other than for dialysis and chemotherapy, overseas medical treatment, medically unnecessary procedures such as cosmetic treatments, certain constituent surgeries, costs of unapproved prescription drugs and co-payment, are not covered.
The co-payment or co-insurance is the toll you have to carve up with the insurer after you pay your infirmary neb's deductible, which is the initial amount y'all have to pay before your insurer makes a pay-out. For case, if your policy has a co-insurance of x per cent, y'all will pay x per cent of the price after the deductible.
To minimise co-payment costs, you can opt to purchase a co-payment rider with your Integrated Shield Plan. Since April this year, there is a mandatory co-payment of 5 per cent for Integrated Shield Plan riders merely some insurers take co-payment riders that can help cap the out-of-pocket expense to as low every bit $3,000.
GET YOUR Ain EVEN IF YOU Take COMPANY COVERAGE
Even if you lot have company insurance, information technology is all-time to purchase your ain health insurance. A visitor'due south insurance coverage ceases in one case yous leave or retire from the company.
When that happens, y'all may not exist healthy enough to get your own health insurance, and a company too has the correct to change its corporate insurance coverage, said Leaf Tan.
"Insufficiently, personal health insurance usually has a higher claim limit, which helps to cover against long-term, costly medical bills. This is essential for treatment of critical illnesses such as cancer, which can toll up to thousands of dollars," said Prudential's Tan.
"The amount and type of insurance provided by employers likewise varies from organisation to system and may not meet the full spectrum of one's needs."
For more than great ideas for you and your money, visit www.uob.com.sg/women.
CNA Women is a new section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If y'all take women-related news, problems and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg .
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/women/health-insurance-planning-women-280521
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