for new medical plan introduce, is it having new pool of fund? i'm curious...
if like that, isn't it advantageous for healthy older people to join new plan? while young and latecomer participant will bear higher cost when they get older due to the plan no longer in the market and early participant may already 6 feet under or end their policy already...

Regarding that, while waiting for responses, try
post 4770 by Contestchris
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/5096196/+4760

Hope it can provide you with some info while you wait for responses to your query

This post has been edited by MUM: Jan 17 2024, 01:48 PM

Yes that is right. That's why my agent said if you can hop to new plan, hop. But not hop every year. Hop once every 10y

May i know if there are avenues to voice out my anger on this steep premium increase of 56% from GE !!!????
any specific BNM email ?



It seems to me that this business is a sure win, any mispricing then they pass on via premium increase, and if over-price they sit happy with the bumper profit, this makes no sense....

First question, what is your medical card? You can check in the attachment on that page.


This post has been edited by contestchris: Jan 19 2024, 11:27 AM

Hi, i see my plan has Smart Medic, Smart Medic 99, Smart early payout critical care, Critical illness benefit rider, IL Waiver of premium plus rider.

Based on the breakdown of my premium paid statement, about 80% of the premium is related to medical.

I am just wondering how come the increase can be so ridiculous, 56% is no joke at all....

Could be just could due to coinside or combination of medical inflation rise PLUS your age moved your premium to pay bracket to a more costlier rate.
( check you policy for the table to see if your age had "upgraded" to a next age grouping?)


This post has been edited by MUM: Jan 19 2024, 11:56 AM

I m 38 this year, still within the 36-40 age group, even if the policy increase is for next year, i will still be 39....

feel like there is no way for us to complain, either take it or leave it.....sigh....

From what I know, the quantum of increase for SmartMedic is 50% this time. In comparison, the quantum of increase for SmartMedic Xtra (which was launched after SmartMedic) is around 30%.

As to why the discrepancy, refer to the diagram in my first post. Your plan is older, hence it has more "bad risk". The average age would also be higher since it had closed to business earlier, and the healthier ones would've moved on to the newer (i.e. cheaper) plans.

Generally, if you are healthy and have nothing wrong with your health, you should move to the newest plan, SmartMedic Shield. The medical plan's cost of insurance will be significantly lower and the benefits will be significantly better. Plus, with a deductible of RM300, the expectation is medical claims experience will be somewhat better contained.

Can you share the quantum of increase from the PDF? At the bottom, they also share the % value in increase.

Age moving to costlier bracket is completely priced into the cost of insurance at inception.

Medical inflation is also somewhat priced in.

What is not priced in adequately at the point of purchase, is the loss of good risks and a higher proportion of bad risks within the pool.

This post has been edited by contestchris: Jan 19 2024, 12:04 PM

i see 50% increase at the bottom of the appendix table.

Unfortunately, i have gastric problem and GE declined to cover that if i purchase a new plan, so i have to stick to this old and bad plan. I can only use company insurance for the time being to save personal medical plan for future.

How many repricing have you experienced? Any chance you can share the latest repriced rates table?

In any case, if you have pre-existing, you have 2 options:

1) Play it safe and maintain existing cover. Will be more expensive (and exponentially so as you get older as more and more repricings are done), but you will have certainty of cover.
2) Upgrade the medical plan with clearly disclosing your pre-existing. At this point, pre-existing illnesses will not be covered but at least your premiums will be lower.

Under no circumstance should you upgrade your plan or buy a new plan without disclosing your pre-existing conditions, that's going to be a tough lesson to learn when they terminate your policy due to non-disclosure.

Hi Chris, thanks so much for the suggestion. Any ballpark figure like how much lower the premium will be for like-for-like medical coverage?

please find below the revised table from the GE document

I believe these are the launch rates for SmartMedic:



Basically, for age band 36-40 for a Male for SM200 plan, the charges have increased from RM574 at inception to RM1,292 (after 2 repricing exercises). A 2.25x increase! Each repricing exercise has seen an increase of 50%.

Meanwhile, SmartMedic Xtra (SMX) has also seen 2 repricings. However, the quantum in % terms has been lower, increasing at 20% in 2020 and 30% in 2023.

Currently, for M36-40 on SM200, the insurance charge is RM1,292 while for M36-40 on SMX200 the insurance charge is RM1,139.

On the surface level, this doesn't make much sense as SMX is a superior product to SM. But when you consider the "health" of the insurance pool, then you start understanding why SM is more expensive than SMX despite offering inferior benefits.

I am wondering if anyone notice this effect.

Say one is 36 years old, male, healthy: pay around 180rm pm for coverage.
But at age 76, which i dare say really needed the insurance, the cost is at least 2K rm pm for coverage. (lets not kid ourselves, it will most probably be way more than that when the time comes).

Can one afford to continue the coverage just when one is old, most probably not working and needed the coverage the most?

A great way to hook on "loyal" customer for life...

Normal. You are not the only who noticed. I noticed also. That's why I said my passive income today can already cover my 80 year premium. Plan for it. Or use just use don't hospital.

That's why I consider using gathercare in case it get expensive as backup.

That's the catch 22... continue the coverage if one can afford by the time one aged, or basically "wasted" all the payments up until that breaking point where one no longer can continue to pay the coverage.

Does it not seem, subconsciously, a little like a nefarious scheme that is not sustainable.... maybe that's why some layman liken it to a ponzi scheme of sorts.

One more observation to note: all these recent no limit lifetime coverage policies look good on paper... but in reality, the medical premium fees will skyrocket as time passes.
(insurance is a pooled risk sharing scheme... pretty much no stats yet for age 70 to 80 under these unlimited lifetime coverage policies yet).

That's why I always said the hefty premium is insurance company of saying we have milked you enough. Now we know you are going to claim a lot. Well be prepared to pay a lot. It's our gentle way of saying get the f**k out. We don't want to cover you.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Jan 19 2024, 11:18 PM

the motto is always get as much insurance as you can afford.... or something like that by agents...
(and they get like 50% of your first year premium paid... ).

oh well... for those who can, its better to earmark/set aside like a million ringgit (have to revise this number every 5 years yourself) to cover old age medical treatment than throw into some super expensive ILP or medical card.