What you worry is the one in a million chance you hit a rare disease and it cost alot more than normal to get better. You can opt for a medical plan with high deductible, like 50k. So you cap your risk there.

This is where you buy a medical insurance with the high deductible. In the person's case if he has 50k, then he buys a 50k deductible medical insurance. His risk will be capped at 50k. So he does not have to worry about anything above 50k.

Of course deductible also have a basis. Example 50k per year, so the assurance that every year, touch wood if you get sick max is you pay 50k.

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I am gonna have field day answering or rebutting some of these

Lesson #1 (in no particular order of importance)

Medical insurance is not a free lunch. Insurance companies are FOR-PROFIT companies.

They will increase the price when claims exceed what they collect from you. This will not stop happening. What you know is the price will increase. How bad it is? Who knows...?

How many years or how frequent will it be? Depends on your insurance company.

The more frequent they do it, more likely smaller quantum.

The less frequent, the bigger the quantum.

How not to get influenced by this? /s but well... you can always go to government hospital and not buy medical insurance. But Honestly i dunno. This is a certainty but maybe there is an option that makes it more palatable but this... maybe look out for lesson #2

Isn't BNM doing something about this? Arent they aware? Yes, they are aware of these price increase. Because without BNM approval, you would not have received the letter telling you to pay more.

This post has been edited by adele123: Jan 11 2024, 05:21 PM

so actuary or actuaries depending on singular or plural typically works in an insurance company.

if bank staff get better interest rate for home loan, telco companies get telco benefits, and F&B staff get probably some F&B benefit, what do insurance company staff get? you guessed it staff discount or any form of staff privilege when they self-buy insurance plan (well most companies who care about their staff anyway).

i dont want to go down the route of ILP vs standalone yet... it's a lesson by itself, but i want to rebutt what actuaries will buy? whatever most value for money. if they say can buy, then should be ok la. if they really buy, then you better follow la...

But i want to highlight, actuaries do buy ILP. they just happily use their staff privilege to buy.

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Lesson #2: Buy Medical Insurance with Deductible and Co-insurance

I can loosely tell you what most actuaries will recommend you to buy.
1) Buy simple, cheapest of whatever you can get. if life insurance, buy term life or the simplest form of whatever life insurance you can get, AND DONT EXPECT any return.
2) if medical, buy with deductible or co-insurance.

So, why Buy Medical Insurance with Deductible and Co-insurance?
Mainly, it is to lower the premium or insurance charge that you pay to the insurance company. Medical insurance with 0 deductible is being on purposed priced in a very expensive manner. So buy one with deductible. With Co-insurance of 10% and 20%, even better. the premium for these are typically cheaper. in the past there were instances i heard that the medical insurance with co-insurance get repriced less because they do claim less. THIS however, i cannot guarantee will continue to hold true. but if you do get some savings from the premium you pay.

How much deductible is enough though? Not sure, honestly at the end of the day, it's up to you. i digress abit BUT i have talked to some people who know some people who is saying RM300 deductible also can't afford to pay. i'm sorry, but life is such. you want to masuk hospital, you gotta pay. if you can't, i am proud to say, you wont die in Malaysia because you are sick and poor. our government hospital, our KKM, really try our best to treat the patients. This one i genuinely believe so.

i have mentioned this in different post, my own deductible is 15k. i just have to stomach the 1st 15k on my own, after that it's paid by the insurance company. i do save alot since i was a fresh grad. having said that, i do work for an MNC, hence my employer coverage is sufficient. even if i dont have employer coverage and i can afford to pay RM15k on my own.

what if 15k is too high for you? you can look for around 1k, 3k, 5k. or recently AIA has one 20% co insurance up to RM3k. which is like having a 3k deductible, sort of. would this mean you wont get repriced? No, but HOPEFULLY it should impact you less. IN my case, the 15k deductible also get repriced. i'm NOT sure and i dont know if the % of increase is lesser compare to someone without deductible. i hope so...? the quantum of the increase is definitely very acceptable.

Do i have any proof my word is to be trusted? Nope. Am i an actuary? Nope.

Do i think you can trust me? Yes, most of the time, if I dont mistype cause i worked 9 to 6 everyday or if im tired from gym.

This post has been edited by adele123: Jan 11 2024, 06:27 PM

Since you guys are so curious on the commission
https://www.bnm.gov.my/-/ops-cost-control-l...siness-24122019

it's on BNM website for public view.

you can refer to page 18/22 where it compares the total commission of IL and non-IL in % terms. even though it mentioned financial adviser, it's actually the same for those in the agency model with upline and downline. you just can't see the breakdown of what the upline and downline earns if you refer to this page but i guess what matters is the total commission you are paying as a consumer.

as someone has mentioned, actually if you ask for the formal quotation from the insurance company, it's all clearly stated there. enforced by BNM.

Life insurance is very cheap, when you are young. Medical insurance is different.

While I guess the awareness of online insurance is good, it's like saying fried chicken is more expensive than kangkung. It's not comparable in that sense.

Even "cheaper", personal accident insurance that does not cover too much frills.

Please keep in mind to plan hop wisely. Especially to people who said dont want to benefit agents.

Buying a new plan is usually giving commission from year 1 to agents. For most plans commission are generally highest in year 1, gradually reduce over the years.

if you have an Investment-Linked Plan, please reach out to the insurance company if you have the option to delete current medical rider and add new medical rider. from what i know, my brother's policy, about 20 years old, can attach a new medical plan. most likely additional premium is required, but instead of changing the entire plan, he continue to keep his current plan, and the overall charges incurred will be lesser. Caveat: Not all insurance companies will have this option for all their investment-linked plan. so, i hope you are lucky.

please read the product disclosure sheet where possible. BNM will always say insurance is a long-term plan (when long means almost life time long), so dont surrender buy new due to high initial charges.

insurance company is not a charity, it's for profit. However, BNM will be there to watch closely and insurance companies won't submit for reprice if their claims didnt worsen. let's just say hospitalisation claim has only worsen and has not improved over the years.

the only exception and anomaly was/is COVID where people just stop going to hospital...

Also to add on, BNM is coming up with guidelines to steer the industry to control these repricing situation as shared by BNM paper (the one shared by contestchris). BNM wants it to be sustainable and bla bla bla... it's not perfect but it's a work in progress.

search for post #4770

This post has been edited by adele123: Jan 22 2024, 10:57 PM

Do you have existing medical insurance already? If yes, what sort of plan is it? Is it ILP or standalone? Buying a new plan is always not advantageous...

What you hear about GE claim is confirm anecdotal. I'm not trying to defend GE since i dont work for them but it's really not proven.