I am in a dilemma.

I have an aging parents-in-law (aged 61 & 55 respectively),
and they both do not have insurance.

Question;

Which would be better?

[1] Subscribe for Medical Card
[2] Enrol them to Life Insurance


And would it be wiser to buy individually, or get the coverage as a group (i.e. the whole family).

Advise please, thanks.

Since the word mentioned "aging", I presumed they are not generating income already, right?

If the parent are not generating income, and not supporting the family financial, life insurance is not important.
When the person dead, it causes no financial stress to the family, hence the life insurance compensation on death is needless.
One of main purpose of getting life insurance is to get dead compensation to cover the loss of financial pillar of the family.

At those age, medical insurance generally is quite expensive, hence affordability can be an issue.

Hmm, they are both still generating income;
one of them income not fixed, but the other is a civil servants (earning monthly income).

The breadwinner of the family is the mom, and basically they rely on her income to make ends meet.
They still have 2 kids in college, and 1 still in school.

They are both fairly in good condition, but I am afraid that should they fall ill (hospitalized, and/or requiring surgery), it may make a huge dent in the financial of the family.

Any other advise ?

As cherroy mentioned, as for senior person, the medical will be quite expensive due to high health risk. Also do not forget, underwriter may need to assess their medical checkup and may not accept their application if any medical history and illness. There might be loading or exclusion as well.

It really depends on the affordability for medical insurance and life insurance will be important if she still a breadwinner for the family.

They is no much company still offer family medical plan. But those plan are sharing the medical limit.

Warga emas got priority to get treatment in general hospital and the most will cost rm2000-5000 in first class bed. If stay in 2nd or 3rd class bed, the medical fees are close to rm200.
Also do the check ups in KK, it may take longer time but once report is out, the medicine they can also get it for cheap.
Or you can pay rm200-300 a month for a person with coverage will be excluded based on medical reports. Or will get denial in some cases.
Wait, on your another reply you said 1 of them are civil servant, then the payment in GH are even lower.
So for me don't waste a single cent on buying insurance.
Your parents-in law basically are doing the right thing by not buying any insurance and you shall learn from them.
Civil servants will be getting 60% from the last salary drawn before they retire and will be getting increment 2% every year.
Also, insurance will get claim only if never default any payment.

It is affordability issue in the first place.

Since as mentioned, one income is not fixed, then affordability is already in question, as I presumed the other civil servant earning is towards supporting the family and kids expenses.

Insurance at this age is not "cheap" to start with.
While civil servant has good benefit on hospitalisation, which one can capitalise on it when needed.

Mind that they are nearly retirement age, it is not advisable to increase any fixed liabilities at this age, as it could be a burden when retired time, whereby the person will be no more generating income to pay those premium.

You concern about immediate to make ends meet, instead concern on something which may or may not happen in a longer term future.

If sign up insurance and need to pay hefty premium, resulted short fall to make ends meet each month, kids not enough to pay college fee, what's the use of having million of worth of insurance.

Mind that at this age, medical insurance could come out several thousand pa. and with 2 person adding up, easily more than 5 digit.

You need to prioritise what is more important, and one step at a time.

I would like to clarify that AIA Family Plan does not share the annual limit. If it is 100k, each person gets 100k to claim annually.
With that said, it is still not feasible for your in-laws to get a family plan because their children will be dropped from the plan at age 23.

However, the last entry age (the latest they can apply) is at age 69. (If it's next birthday, then 70)

You're looking at 7-8k p.a. for both of them this year.
Next year it will be more.

ExpZero Dude. What's the difference between extender and extender-max?

Hi all,

How much the premium for 500k insurance coverage for the 1 year old baby?
Please share

cherroy is giving you sound advice.

If one of your parent are civil servant, they might be having a good government hospitalization protection. I will make it simple for you by answer the question below.
1)Do your parent is having comprehensive medical coverage from government hospital?
2)Are you willing to fork out RM10,000/year for both of your parent medical insurance?
3)Do your parent leaving adequate of fund to you shall they pass away?

If the answer is Yes-No-No, then I'm advising you to get Critical Illness + Life coverage for your parent instead of medical protection as your parent can get medical protection in government hospital whereas if there is really some critical illness of pre-mature death happen, you will be compensated with some quick cash for better financial management. Critical Illness with Life protection plan are generally lower premium comparing to medical protection, which we called it income protection.


It's similar but Smart Extender must be accompanied with a medical card(Example: Smart Premier Health, Smart Medic or Smart Medic Xtra) whereas Smart Extender Max can be bought individually.

Since the baby do not have any financial impact on the family, why would you need such high insurance coverage for 1 year old baby? Insurance company will only approve the application with special request from you.

You might want to step away from the person who gave you that idea...

I read somewhere that for Max, every time you claim (within a year) you must fulfill the deductible quota. But the Extender no need because the deductible is derived from the principal policy's annual limit. As long as the principal annual limit is hit, every subsequent claim within that policy year will be paid by the rider.

True or not?

Yes, you are right. Both Smart Extender (SE) and Smart Extender Max(SEM) are having deductible, which means that the rider are not taking claim from the deductible amount. Since SE must accompanied with a medical card with the annual limit is same with the deductible amount, so the deductible amount will be absorbed by the medical card and the client need not to pay for the deductible amount.

What I mean is, let me give you a scenario:

1.
1-Jan > Heart related surgery with complecations. Bill shoot to 200k

Let say normal annual limit is 100k. So the rest of the bill will be taken care by the rider.


2. Then
1-May > Appendix surgery. Bill is 10k
So, under SE, the claim no problem
But, under SEM, this bill cannot claim because the 2nd bill also must fulfill the 100k deductible even though it's within the same policy year.


Right or not?

Both SE and SEM will approve second claim. The deductible is per year not per event.

Both SE and SEM will approve second claim. The deductible is per year not per event.

Thanks a lot for the confirmation.

Why there are not many standalone medical plan, without co-insure, offered by insurance companies with high annual limit (close to Rm1 mil) & unlimited life limit?

This post has been edited by tonytyk: Oct 31 2015, 09:22 PM

What sort of answer you want on this question?
You want them to tell you that if offer you stand alone policy only, they will not make money

if you open business to sell chicken rice... with siu yoke... and your siu yoke is the best in town but your chicken rice is average... and assuming the government say you can only sell siu yoke at RM10 per plate...

now the cost of your siu yoke varies, sometimes higher (possible as high as RM9 or even RM10) sometimes lower but your chicken rice cost is relatively more stable.

so, in order to make the most out of your business, you force your customer to buy siu yoke with chicken rice.

so insurance companies indirectly making you buy the chicken rice with siu yoke. i'm not saying it's fair and nice, but if you were the chicken rice seller you would do the same.

PS: this analogy is not intended to be offensive. just the best i can think of at this moment.