Here is my situation :

1) <30 years old
2)My company will provide medical benefit until my retirement for our family (56 years old)
3)Currently have no major illness
4)My worried is after retired if i still with this company i will not be cover anymore and by that time it maybe too late for me to buy medical insurance as it will not cover any illness that i already have.

My question is :
1)What i need to do?Should i buy medical insurance now?
2)If yes, what type of medical insurance should i buy?My oficcemate bought a medical insurance with Prudential with RM150+ per month.He inform me this is investment link policy.Should i follow him?I don't have a good knowledge and experience with medical insurance buy i really plan to buy one for our family but don't know what to chooose.I surf Prudential and Great Eastern benefit but there is not enough information given there.
3)Some of my friend there is a lot of hidden clause in the medical insurance policy.Is it true?For e.g. insurance company change the clause without informing us such as room eligibility, and etc...
4)Which insurance company i should choose?From the blog i heard people said that Prudential is one of the best
Appreciate any reply...Thanks....

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.

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

Xuzen

ur first para - yes i did.

ur 2nd para - i know that already. so what are the constructive suggestions u have for me here?

Having said that it is not that we cannot buy H&S insurance, it is just that we should not just go for the low premium, we should look at track records of the insurers in managing the premium hike, if they have been freely increasing their premium in the past frequently with high quantum, then one should think carefully. The other area would be the services etc....

Hi,

This is from Allianz.

There is always pros and cons for traditional policies and ILPs. So there is no 1 best plan. It all comes back to what benefits u want and whether the budget you have can get what u want or not. Put it simple - for younger ppl age less than 45, buying ILP is cheaper than buying traditional life policy given that u want the same coverage. But the drawback in ILP is u may face to add extra premium when the fund is not enough to cover the cost of insurance. On the other hand, traditional policies (whole life NOT term) gives you some returns at the end of the day and its considered quite safe. So you choose which suits u better.

hi gary,

for your annual budget you can get your son a very good plan. i personally have chosen the axa smartcare plan with 500 k annual limit (costs around 700 RM for my 17 mth old daughter annually) and topped it up with tokio marine medic partner (10k deductable) to adjust the low cover for outpatient dialysis and cancer treatment from axa (they only pay lifetime 60k each, so 10k deductable for either kidney is more than enough and allows for 6 cancers before you have to pay a sen). tokio marine covers 150k max annually and 750k lifetime which is anough as an extra safety net if you ask me. premium is like 160 bucks or so.

so the combination will set you up nicely.

critical illness wont be needed from medical cost point of view then. if you want to protect death and TPD you might want to include him in your family plan if possible (for us this wasnt possible, we use MCIS 1M cover which does not take kids under 21).

the 3k savings is a good thing we forgot to buy it last year but will surely do it this december. instant savings you can even use the taxes saved to buy/pay for some of the insurances. so it's win-win!

if you go for foreign insurance policies you need to approach them. many will refuse some wont. usually some insurance companies in UK / Ireland / Germany (we have or had from all three countries) have offers made for expats but those are often open to others too. for example allianz worldwidecare in ireland offers a really sweet medical insurance with optional outpatient cover. take a look at their website - the premiums are too high for me even for the asian plans. healthcare is not that costly here and they seems to cater more for hong kong ppl but its an option. we used to be with them for around 3 years and they paid all bills promptly on time and even the delivery of my wife was paid for entirely. nice!

hi numbertwo,

yes tokio marine has a guaranteed renewal after one claims free year ("Renewal guaranteed after 12 months of 'claims-free' period."). since it's only meant as a top up plan this should not be an issue.

i also looked into medi-major but found the premium way to high to serve as a top-up cover. this would probably be more suitable for someone who uses it as a standalone policy and then pays the initial costs him/herself.

for us the tokio marine sounded good for the outpatient cancer / dialysis benefits. so you can first claim from the basic insurance and then from tokio marine anything exceeding 10k, thus keeping some buffer on the basic insurance. the high life-time limit (if you only look at those two benefits) should be more than sufficient even if you are truely unlucky.

the only drawback is that the policy can only be renewed until 70. i truely hope Tokio Marine and Axa and all the others will soon offer their policies with a higher renewal age. there definitely is a lot of movements in the last two years and 100 seems to be become the new 80 so there is hope for the young(er) ones among us

hi numbertwo,

i think you misunderstood them - or did i? if you buy the policy and dont make any claims in the first 12 months you have a guaranteed renewal for the future. i will double check on this. tokio marine is brand new for me. if you are right and there is only a renewal guaranteed if the previous year no claims then this insurance is worthless too despite the nice coverage for outpatient cancer.

edit: i checked the policy wording and i think they communicated this wrongly to you. see this quote:

"15. Period of cover and renewal

[..]
Upon completion of 12 months of continous insurance under this Policy without any intimation of claims or Hospitalization whatsoever, only then this policy will be renewable at the option of insured subject to the terms, conditions and termination at each of the anniversary of the policy date. [..]

Such changes [add: to the premiums] shall be applicable to all insureds irrespective of their claim experience according to the company's risk assessment"

the way i read it is that after you go through 12 months (the first ones) without any claims they cant refuse to insure you. and you wont ever be subject to individual loading after this period. in others words its good for you if you survice the first year. i double checked this with one of my companies lawyers and he agrees to this interpretation. this doesnt make it saver but i think this will be the way. if you want double check with TM's underwriting. i would be willing to dispute any loading after the first year in a court of law - i think i would win

cheers!

.....

...

The other difference between general insurer and life insurer is, general insurer can increase the premium of an individual member based on the individual risk, while in life, the premium increase is done across the board to everyone based on the en bloc risk from time to time subject to approval from the Regulator.
.....

numbertwo,

you are absolutely correct

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Added on July 17, 2009, 12:04 pmnumbertwo,

i had a word with bank negara regarding what the underwriter told you. they were very nice (and free as it seems). they told me that based upon the policy wording it is impossible for TM to impose any kind of individual loading. this is further confirmed by this statement:

"15. [..]
On each such anniversary, this Policy is renewable at the premium rates in effect at that time as notified by the company.
"

the problem they and i now see is that they reserve the right to alterations of the policy. TM reserves the right to ammendments only. which in fact means that the whole portfolio can be changed. the question is: since it only covers ammendments, the renewal most likely cant be changed but the list of exlusions might be ammended. so your underwriter might be right about this. the grounds for this are however very shaky. i will let my lawyer skim through the contract again as mine is due for renewal soon and i dont want to make any mistakes there. my lawyer seems to be of the (current) opinion that ammendments to the contract should only be legal if made to the portfolio contract but its a lot to read so there might be a loophole hidden for TM.

*snipped*

and i agree with you on axa. they're benefits are lot better than most other insurances in the market. but i think only the SmartCare Executive has a lifetime limit. and this plan has a major catch. they have a sublimit per disability! please be aware of this.

the SmartCare Optimum does not have any lifetime limit only an annual limit. i strongly suggest this plan over the executive plan despite the difference in cost. in the long run not having a lifetime limit is almost invaluable esp. if you intend to run the plan until old age.

Last year, I checked and it was roughly RM1250 to medical, RM130 for life and RM400 for investment. What do you think?