Hi All,

I need your advice and clarification on how my medical policy works. Note the policy is from Great Eastern.
I receive this letter couple of months back asking me top up because my current monthly payment is unable to "sustain" my insurance plan.
My insurance agent explain to me that topping up is not required especially for my age demographic (late 20s), and my policy can still cover me to maybe age 70+(?)

I have a few questions :

1) What is the difference between increasing and not increasing the premium amount.

2) If i increase the premium amount, does it mean that the policy can maintain longer and vice versa ?

3) Scenario : Lets say i don't increase the premium amount, and the policy can "sustain" until I'm 70, what happens later if i reach to 71 age, does my policy suddenly lapse ? how will i be notified and how much should i increase the premium then ? (Touch Wood) Lets say if i'm hospitalised at age 71, does it mean that my insurance is effectively lapse and I'm not insured? What happen to all the premiums i payed previously, does it not cover any of my hospital bill ?

4) Scenario : Lets say i do increase the premium and policy can sustain longer, but what if (touch wood) I don't reach the supposedly extended period. What happens to the extra premiums I paid ? All wasted ?

Really sorry if I'm asking very noob-ish questions.
Appreciate your time in explaining this to me and much thanks in advance.

Hi Sifus,

I am in late 20s and paying RM280 monthly for this GE medical plan.

I believe annual limit coverage is 1.2 mil and no lifetime limit, coverage until year 2073.
(can someone explain to me the 132,000 amount and for those policy that end in year 2092)?
Daily hospital board coverage is RM 200 per day

Need your expertise to advise if my current medical plan is ok compared with other plans in the current market?
Is there anything i can add (or get another insurance) to improve on my existing policy?



This post has been edited by timeekit: Mar 9 2023, 02:42 AM

Thanks. So in summary, my policy medical coverage is annually 1.2 mil until 99 years old?
If I'm hospitalize (touch wood) do I need to pay upfront cost first and claim later, or insurance company will pay the full upfront cost.

Do you think my policy is comparable to other plans in the market, and is there anything that I could add to increase the effectiveness of this policy?

@denion @lifebalance @MUM @contestchris
Thank you for your input and advice given.

Would like to seek your opinion on this matter as well
My mum actually bought a PRU medical policy way back when I was a teen, but the medical policy I feel is currently obsolete.

Annual limit +/- 70k and lifetime limit around 200k, paying around rm200 per month.

Is there anything that can be done to increase the effectiveness of this policy? Or am I just being overinsured if I continue with this medical policy, since I already have a GE medical policy which I feel is good as well.

Just wondering are there any medical card for normal clinic visit claim, free health check up etc that can complement my current GE medical card?

Hi Sifus,

Following up on my previous query.
Just want to seek your opinion if the priorities of the RM is in the right place.

So recently became the legal owner of the PRU old policy and took over from my mum.
What I'm mainly concern is whether there is anything to revamp the policy to be current with the market and if there is anything that can bridge the gap in comparison with my GE medical policy. I even mention my focus now is mainly to see if I want to continue the policy or not.

Yet the priority of the RM is wanting me to update and perform minimum housekeeping of the old policy eg : appoint a nominee (in case of death), update payment mode, my marital status, nationality etc, and started to give me all kind of forms.

Yes i understand the need for housekeeping, but bro, all I want is to see if you could offer anything to revamp this policy, I may not even want to continue this policy.. after that i didn't continue the conversation, he didn't pursue messaging me further and now in limbo.

So what do you think? Is the priorities of the RM correct? What should be my next course of action?

Hi Sifus, i received Premium Revision letter asking to add additional RM 70 per month.
I do not plan on increasing the premium, but I need some clarification on the sustainability part.

Even if i don't increase the premium, i am still covered, so why would people want to increase their monthly premium?
does the sustainably part only mean that the policy cant sustain until year 99 but sustain until a lower year?

This is annual premium revision letter, if I continue to opt out to increase my premium i am still covered until x years. However, after many years later, if my plan really is unsustainable, will there be a different kind of letter to inform that i MUST increase my premium or my policy will lapse?

Will there be any signs that my policy is slowly becoming unsustainable prior to this letter (if there is a different kind of letter), because relying on just that 1 notification of that specific year to inform me that my policy WILL lapse, people may really missed out.

How long do they allow us to perform that one time full premium top up before the policy lapses.

Hope you can provide some insight

This post has been edited by timeekit: Apr 5 2023, 07:42 PM

Yes they have notify their recommendation for us to increase the premium, does not mean that the policy is lapse. Shouldn't there be at least another notification or other clear signs that the policy is really unsustainable anymore?

Is there anywhere we can see what is the revised year does my policy sustain to if i don't increase the premium ?

This post has been edited by timeekit: Apr 5 2023, 08:42 PM

Hi Sifus,

Thank you for replying last time. I have additional question to ask



Question 1 :
Referring to Medical Benefit (2) - Smart Extender
I Just realise there is a deductible amount of 120,000 per policy year, I need further explanation on this
What i understand about deductible is that we will need to fork out money from our end first, and the insurance will only kick in after the deductible finishes. Eg : my medical bill is 150,000, i will need to pay 120,000 first and then the rest of 30,000 insurance will bear - please correct me if I'm wrong

Question 2 :
Since I have Medical Benefit (1) - SmartMedic Xtra with annual limit of 120,000 (noted every 3 years limit will increase by additional 12k), does that mean that the insurance will bear 120,000 and if the bill goes over this, Medical benefit (2) will start to kick in, effectively I don't have to fork out anything? - please correct me if I'm wrong

Question 3 :
If my understanding for question 2 is correct, lets say (touch wood) I was admitted to hospital and the bill went overboard to 150,000, both my medical benefit (1) & (2) will cover it in full. However, lets say few months later I was admitted again (touch wood), will Medical Benefit (1) kick in? Since I have fully used it from my first visit, i guess i would need to fork out 120,000 first and only then Medical Benefit (2) will start to kick in if the bill goes overboard - please correct me if I'm wrong

Thank you. Just to clarify on point 3, it will cover means that it will utilise the remaining annual limit under Medical Benefit (2) and I am not required to pay any deductible?
If that's the case, can I say my effective limit is actually 120,000 + 1,200,000 = 1,320,000 per policy year?

On that note, both medical benefit have its own board room rate of 200 per day.
Does it mean I effectively have 400 room board rate as well?

If the above is true, just wondering why the plan is structured in such a way where they separate into 2 different plan ie : 120,000 + 1,200,000 ?
Why not just combined it into one to reduce confusion.

Hi Sifus,

My Insurance Agent shared this campaign to me.
Seems quite worthwhile as able to double my annual limit.

Just wanted to know your opinion if worth to take it up, if it doesn't increase my current premium (or increase by a little)

Great Eastern Double Annual Limit Campaign

Hi Sifu, just wanted to clarify further. I do have an existing medical plan from same company also.
Getting this new plan is an "upgrade" to my current policy,
cause all benefit remain the same, but my annual limit increases.

So still worthwhile to take?

Can I confirm CI is Critical Illness and PA is Personal Accident?
Actually i never really thought of that, i always felt that if one discharged after (touch wood) being hospitalized, everything would go back to normal.
Maybe for minor cases then yes, but if major cases, then we may need insurance money to supplement our daily spending, in view that we may not work the same post hospitalization.

My policy does have lump sum critical illness benefit though, but definitely lesser amount compared to the medical coverage
i guess best to have insurance policy that is "balance" in terms of during and post hospitalization.

This post has been edited by timeekit: Oct 2 2023, 02:57 AM

Thanks for the insight, yes indeed its switching from old medical plan to a new one, will get me to consider further. Really appreciate it !

Also appreciate Ramjade advise, always open to know more about standalone and ILP

Don't worry about the wall of text. Love reading your POV and input. Appreciate it !
But yes, do agree that the many agents (or agents that I come across) doesn't offer/explain standalone,
I only knew about standalone from reading through the forum and comments from users like you.

This post has been edited by timeekit: Oct 2 2023, 06:05 PM

Hi Sifus,

Just want to clarify on the premium payment logic for this scenario.
Lets give the monthly premium as 100 and no additional increase when switching

Ali
- has existing medical plan (A) and want to switch to medical plan (B)
- He already paid 100 premium due for September month for A, and he switch to B on September as well
- To enforce B, upfront 2 months payment needed, hence September and October month cleared, and next due on November and December
- So for the year 2023, Ali will have paid 500 (5 months) of premium

Muthu
- has existing medical plan (A) and want to switch to medical plan (B)
- He already paid 100 premium due for September month for A, but he switch to B on October instead
- To enforce B, upfront 2 months payment needed, hence October and November month cleared, and next due on December
- So for the year 2023, Muthu will have paid 400 (4 months) of premium

With the above scenario, why would one switch on September when they can switch on October, where they will pay lesser total premium in year 2023.
Assuming we don't talk about the extra coverage by medical plan B, and medical plan A still covers the overall essential.
So isn't Ali paying "double" for essentially being covered the same for September month?

Appreciate your advise thanks !

This post has been edited by timeekit: Oct 3 2023, 10:13 PM

Hi Sifus,

Just wondering if contracting Dengue / Covid etc , these kind of viral infection need to disclose to company?
Will it impact the medical policy plan ? eg like i contract covid before, so if i change new plan will they still cover or exclude covid coverage.

Thanks in advance !

Today I learned. Thanks for bringing this up.
I know when purchasing ILP, its not really focus on investment purpose, but for the coverage.
So I didn't really bother looking at what funds the company gave, but just leave it up to the agent to decide what's best.

After checking, my policy does have option to switch to this fund.

Guess I'll opt to switch to it, at least better than investing in local market