Insurance Agency Singapore | Commercial Insurance and Personal Insurance

Having addressed the healthcare financing system in Singapore, Singaporeans would still want to know the answer to the question –  who pays their medical bills? The straight answer to this is “whether it is the government, Medisave, employers, or insurance, it is ultimately Singaporeans themselves who must bear the burden”. – August 2005, vol. 34 No. 7, page 462, Annuls Academy of Medicine. This situation forms the backdrop of healthcare financing for Singaporeans and thus affects how and to what extent each person should be covered for medical insurance.

The challenge:

“I am already covered by my company, why should I need to buy additional medical insurance ?” The majority of Singaporeans are employed and thus enjoy some form of medical insurance coverage provided by their employers. As such, many Singaporeans have the mistaken impression that if their employers have provided hospitalisation and surgical coverage for them, they consider themselves to be ‘comprehensively’ and ‘fully’ covered, so they do not bother to look at any other medical coverage.

This impression is potentially hazardous as employee hospitalisation and surgical insurance in reality does not provide long term coverage and thus cannot be the foundation of a person’s medical insurance portfolio. Relying on employee medical insurance alone also carries these disadvantages:

Disadvantages:

1. Changing jobs leads to the giving up of medical insurance from the previous employer and the enrolment in the new employer’s insurance scheme. The medical insurer will therefore change accordingly.
   • This inevitably raises the question of whether the person’s health and medical history at the point of changeover could still qualify him/her to be insured at ‘standard’ rates, and at the same terms and conditions. Thus, job moves do create uncertainty in a person’s medical insurance and subject his/her healthcare financing to risk.
2. Employers who manage their health insurance cost would normally accept certain limitations to the policy terms and conditions. They could be in many forms, including sub-limits, deductible and co-insurance.
   • Every employee has to be aware of these limits, but in reality, many employees take them for granted by assuming that their employee health insurance covers everything.
3. Furthermore, as some health policies are incepted without the need to declare medical history, they would automatically exclude all pre-existing illnesses or medical conditions at inception and typically for the 12 months thereafter.
   • This would be detrimental to the employee if he/she has sought medical advice or treatment for any major medical condition before policy inception.
4. Like most private medical insurance, employee health insurance does not insure a person until the ripe old age of 100, thus exposing him/her to financing risk when they need it most during their golden years.
5. Each insurer’s medical plan, coverage and terms and conditions of coverage can be quite different. As a result, each time a person changes employment – and thus their health insurer – he/she has to re-analyse the new insurer’s scope and extent of coverage to see if they still adequately supplement his/her personal medical plans. Owing to the tedious nature of this task, employees usually do away with it, erroneously assuming that their coverage is the same as before.

See full story at www.healthxchange.com.sg

The average price of individual medical insurance in Singapore

Available to download for free from March 30th via their website, Article 1 presents some intriguing findings, including figures for Singapore. Numerous reports in the past year have found Singapore to be not only a highly liveable city, but also increasingly expensive. This is also extended to the cost of health care at private hospitals and, therefore, health insurance as well.

In fact, Singapore was found to be among the most expensive locations – on average – in the report. Coming in 5th overall, with an average plan cost of USD 9,784, only China, Israel, Hong Kong and the US are more expensive. When broken down into each demographic the average premiums in Singapore are: USD 4,499 for Singles, USD 9,445 for Couples, USD 14,102 for Families, and USD 10,762 for Retirees.

When ranked, Singapore falls 4th most expensive for Single plans, 5th most expensive for Couples plans, 5th most expensive for Family plans, and 5th most expensive for Retirees. While Singapore is among the top 5 most expensive locations in the report, the numbers are somewhat lower when compared to premiums in the US. For example, the average premium in Singapore is 44.70% of the average in the US. This points to a large difference in the average premiums in the top countries.

What influences the premiums in Singapore?

At first glance, it may seem a little odd to see health insurance premiums in Singapore ranking so high. Pacific Prime has identified a number of reasons as to why premiums in Article 1 are so high. Below are four that are most relevant to Singapore:

1. The cost of health care can be expensive for expats
Singapore is well known to have one of the best, and, indeed, most interesting health care systems in the world. Citizens and Permanent Residents have access to the Medisave system which functions as a nationalized health insurance plan enabling substantial health care savings at both the public and private hospitals and clinics.

Non-citizens and Permanent Residents – essentially almost all foreigners in Singapore – don’t have access to the Medisave system which means they are charged full price for any health related care.

The issue with this is that the unsubsidised costs can vary widely. For example, an excision of a mole can cost between SGD 275 and SGD 488 just for the surgery with costs on top for dr’s fees, etc. Private hospitals often cost even more, with the average price at Mount Elizabeth Hospital for the treatment advertised as being between SGD 5,000 and SGD 10,000.

By rob.mcbroom

See full story at www.pacificprime.sg