What's your income?
What's your budget for Insurance? RM 150 - 175K coverage
How old? (mid 30's and non-smoker)
Female/Male? (Male)
Occupation? (Office worker)
Do you have any dependent? How many? How old? Are they working or not? (One child 2 y/o, one more coming soon)
Xuzen

i do a lot of research on insurance and saving plan on these few months.

i found out that most of the insurance agents didnt tell you the truth, such as the hidden fees, un-protectation part...and so on. so disappointed 

for my advice is ask many insurance agent as u can ( even they r from same company, they always tell the diff story)

one of my insurance friend told me that insurance is very simple just for protection, not more than that.
for example, if u wan add on saving plan, why dont u go to bank? this is what the bank for.

dont believe on what they said.....medical plus saving (bull shit )

Why is it so hard to get this message across? Friends of mine have been so happy with their medical plus savings plan they shut me off from their first breath whenever I explain to them about basic insurance and savings.

Is it that human will only learn it the hard way? 

Medical Card covers your hospital bill only. There is usually a life time cap based on your premium. I read somewhere that your cap should be 10 times your current annual salary. MedCare covers any event of hospitalization irrespective of cause, NB. Outpatient treatment are usually excluded. Seeing a GP outside are also generally excluded.
A traditional Med Card, your premium is burned in the event you do not use the facilities. Med Card is to indemnify you, not for profiteering.
Assuming you retire at 55 y/o, the only drawback is that your premium will be much much higher compare to when you buy it when you are 25 y/o.
Do not confuse Med card with Critical Illness with PA. They are different tools for different purpose, just like a screwdriver is good for screwing screws, hammer is good for hammering nails and a cutter is good for cutting stuff. Although you will find them all classified as handyman's tool.

To have all round protection, you need all, just like if you are a handyman doing repairing job you need all the necessary tools.

As a general rule of thumb, 10x annual salary for med card, 3-5 xannual salary for CI & PA.

Disclosure: I am not an insurance agent, but I am a user of insurance.


That or hire a Financial Planner like I did and you can get quotes from so many different company whereas an agent are limited to two Life Insurance company.

Xuzen

Hi,

The way I look at this is , either you buy the extra medical coverage NOW or after 55,  you got to pay the same kind of rate when you reach 55.  It doesn't mean that the premium you pay now will stay when you reach 55, isnt the MC premium usually tier rated?  yes ? no?  So, this isn't really a drawback imo..

We should be looking at how much the company's insurance can cover us... If the company's medical policy covers you up to 500K, then fine & good enuf..  But if company is buying those say board room 100, annum 30K limit, lifetime 100K, x K(say less than 10-15K) only for kidney dialysis or cancer treatment.. .. -- Wouldn't you get worried and quickly go look for another medical policy to cover this up??   The drawback of not getting the EXTRA medical coverage now is chances of you folking out the outstanding unclaimable from your company medical policy is there to stay till you get another coverage...  I hope I write with some sense here, else please comment.

About 10x annual salary... say now if i'm earning 100K pa, do I need a 1Mil medical policy??.. I don't quite get how this logic is derived.  Earning more doesn't mean my medical bill will sore by 10X does it?  But it looks like more applicable to CI - CI should be 10x annual salary , since ppl could have been living like a king when they are earning 100K a year, so one probably need that 1Mil for the family to continue with that sort of living standard..  That's my logic... could be totally wrong anyway.

rgrds

I think there is no limit for medical coverage provided by my company only there is a limited coverage as follows:

1)Room rate at RM120 per night.However, i can increase it every year up to RM300 per night if i want.This will deductible from my salary.
2)Can't claim for complicated dental treatment such as bridge, and dental surgery.

Otherwise,is ok.we have our one panel clinic and hospital to choose such as Ampang Puteri,Tawakal,Gleaneagles and etc.

I has been hospitalized before for accident and all the treatment has been covered by my company.So,should i buy medical insurance now or buy it after retirement.Even the premium is higher, long term i think i will still save compare start paying now .

For those who gets company's insurance coverage with certain limit, you may consider looking up any top-up plan that has something calls "deductible" option.  What this does is enables your company insurance to pay first, up till its limit, and claim the remaining from this top-up plan.   I realised this kind of plan costs much lesser and it fits the purpose for those employed, like me.  Any -ve comment about this type of plan?

it write there the sum insured 20k
Type of coverage     Benefit
LPPOO                     20k
CTPDB                    20k

Any expert to guide me on this?

What would you recommend a newly wed to buy, if they are:
- age >25
- no serious medical records
- u-grad
- no children yet
- rent a house
- both are working in government sections - stable but LOW income
- chinese.

thanks chew but i have got to skipped all those abbrv. u used and r u representing any particular co?

@Thanks Ronnie, and All. So, why would one need insurance? For saving money purpose, why not just save into bank WITH STRONG WILL and gain interests or invest in some other ways than insurance? Dont try to beat me with ways of investment elsewhere, Im into finance.

The above case 1 of two young newly wed is my friend's, not me. Im trying to guide him what would work best for him.  So, in short, why would one need insurance if
1) he doesnt care if he gets one of the 36C and died without money to try helping himself (protection)
2) he doesnt need it for investment

Does he still need it now?

Case 2 - I personally do not buy any insurance for anything, except for investment purpose, that i get certain % of return after certain years. Eg, $x will get y% of return after z years.  If you have of these products, let me know.

@Eric
No im not going to call you now n would really like to get as much info from this thread as possible.  But i like your post, it is interesting.

thanks all.

case 1, kids future is a good point. I will talk to him about it.  They might not want any children afterall. I dont know.

case 2, only interested to quick money plans, eg, within 5 or 10yrs; simply see it as an alternatives than putting in normal bank acct.

the poorer ones should get protection asap.  Please dont shut off easily.  U know ur own worries. Let's face it together.

Hi, thanks for the above infor. It's usefull to all here.
I'm act considering of either HLA or Allianz only. The thing that i found out why HLA more expensive than others is some clause they have and others no. Some more their premium higher is maybe co-in alr added in since co-ins is bank negara rules. Finally, i'm still considering of HLA though it's expensive but i think its worth. However, the problem is i heard lots bad comments bout the claim procedure. Frens and agent's client also comments that HLA claim is very difficult and etc. So.....it's make me stuck.

Hi, I'm interested on this plan too. Would like to check which company of this? Thanks.

By the way, anyone of here can advise whether Medical Insurance should put in ILP or traditional plan? Any comemnts?
Thank you.

Hi Ronnie,
sorry i beg to differ..  "Put it simple - for younger ppl age less than 45, buying ILP is cheaper ". 
As far as I am aware, ILP is for those age 0 - 35 or 36 (dunno the exact age).. After this band , the cost of insurance (as you rightly stated) will jump every year and that's when one's policy may suffer from possibility of extra premium to cover the charges..
If one buys from ie. age 40, you will see the cost of insurance jumps double, triple, quadxxxxx within the next 10 years..    This was what my agent told me, he had illustrated the cost of insurance to me too so that's how i came to know abt it..

Hi Ronnie,

I have some questions regarding Allianz products and have send you a pm. Can you please help me clarify those queries? Thanks.

Hi All,

I looking at insurance plan for my son who is coming to 3 month old. Kind of cover of hospitalization/surgical. Some advised me to buy

1. A Life insurance & add on to cover the hospitalization/surgical & 36 critical illnesses.

2. A education plan plus add ons

3. An investment link insurance.

Don't really know which one is the best for my son as I myself are not well versed in surance products.

As for me, I thought of looking up a coverage for myself. Currently I have an endowment plan taken long time ago paying RM10++.00 p.a. coverage of RM20k. As now I am already coming to 40 of age, a smoker, a diabetic & high blood pressure patient, it's quite a problem to get me insured. Even though there is a chance, maybe I need to pay a higher premium and those related health problem that I have now will not be included in the coverage. Is it true?

Need guidance & advise from the experts here.

Tq

ChinHong86,

what is the annual limit? if the annual limit is low (i.e. below 300k) the coverage wont suffice for any serious illness. so it would be required to top-this up with a life-time limit / deductible policy to be prepared for serious illness.

chew_ronnie,

i believe it very much matters what policy you take. for a small kid its easy to get accepted so it makes sense to choose a policy with guarenteed renewal to cover for future sickness which would otherwise impose a loading or outright refusal to insure (see the dad's case of diabetic and hypertension). i would not consider any plan that does not offer some sort of guaranteed renewal.

i would like to hear why you think that an investment linked policy leads to lower premiums? if you look at the overall costs of the insurance they will be significantly higher and providing a lower coverage than a stand-alone policy. if you want to invest money, invest it seperately - this provides much greater flexibility and higher profits imho.

btw: i am not an agent so i wont push for any particular plan i just did a research through all available medical plans not too long ago to cover my own family.

gary_cts: to give you some sort of direction. please provide a budget you are willing to spend on the various types of insurance. no use suggesting a plan that cost you 1000++ if your budget is only 200++ p.a. for medical insurance.

---

Added on July 14, 2009, 11:25 amon an unrelated matter: I am looking for an agent for Tokio Marine to split comission for renewal of Medic Plus Family plan. No work for you just a quick renewal. Plan is used as top-up for AXA so you most likely will never have any work besides the renewal. If anyone is willing to split comission please message me and i let you place the policy in your account. current premium aroun 700 RM only cause we are young. we intend to keep the plan for long term though so the comission will pile up - it's free money

hi chew_ronnie,

i appreciate your reply. i agree with you outpatient cancer/dialysis is critically important. for this very reason we have two plans (AXA 500k annual limit per head + Tokio Marine (10k deductable) to provide an extra 750k lifetime coverage on outpatient cancer/dialysis.

if you look at the mere rider cost the cost to cover 1 RM might be cheaper. but i am not sure if this is really the case. first of all it might be very hard to caugh up the funds required to cover 500k of medical fees. i am not sure what i would have to buy - maybe you can provide an example for this so we can compare a similar coverage. a lower coverage doesnt help that much with a really severe sickness afterall. this is the main problem with linked policies - the annual limit is often just not enough. it's actually cheaper to combine two policies - at least that is how it looks to me.

but the investment-linked rider medical policy does have major disadvantages to me: it's binding a lot of capital. to keep my medical cover i must maintain the insurance. i.e. once i have decided i am locked-in. the same would apply to some degree to a plain-vanilla medical insurance but it only locks me in with respect to health-care. i can add additional plans if i see fit and my investments are independant from the medical cover. this seems like a very important thing to me.

with respect to your premium buffer: i can also save the money i dont spend with the expensive rider attached life policy (bonds/fonds/whatever) and if i cant come up with the premium use those savings. again: total flexibility. this is what we do - we have a monthly budget for healthcare - the savings are placed in conservative investments to reduce the higher premiums in the future.
in that way the investment-link policy provides little benefit if any.

the only issue that still remains is that stand-alone policies usually only cover until 80 at the moment. hopefully this will change very soon as it's most needed when we are even older. but for now what can we do? the Great Eastern Policy that covers until 100 years of age has such a meager limit that it makes no sense to take it up early - you just eat up your allowance and the premiums are so high that you have a greater benefit if you save the policy premiums in government bonds

looking forward to discuss this further with you!

don't buy insurance until your kid is 6 years old, you cann't fully claim anyway.

focus on your own, make sure insurance is abundant if you cann't take care of your family and your young kid.  for the kid, focus on giving her the best in everything including health food, injection, family doctor etc.

if really want to 'save' for the kid, use mutual fund or other form of investment, you have 5-6 years of time horizon.  by then stop your investment and buy the insurance if you still want to ...

no, investment link is not an appropriate for this case.

sorry fellow insurance agents, but you can focus on the adult and ask him to use all his budget in his own plans, one for himself and another investment link on his name but for the kid ....