My Friend Thinks Insurance Is a Scam—Genius or Foolish?

[Mephist0pheLes]

Have you looked at the income tax for Norway and Sweden?

Ppl that don't pay much income tax don't think about where all the "free" things given by the govt come from one.

 

[oncall-engineer]

Ppl that don't pay much income tax don't think about where all the "free" things given by the govt come from one.

People who don’t pay much income tax usually don’t know how a balance sheet work.

 

[oncall-engineer]

I think this hk friend of yours have full trust in our medsave and medishield life, he's a good candidate for our future new citizen

Firstly, mostly Hong Kongers are quite skeptical and jaded. Pessimism is their natural self defence.

 

[oncall-engineer]

Hello insurance agent.

Just a friendly reminder that I’m an on-call engineer, dedicated to maintaining 99.99% uptime—which, unfortunately, leaves little bandwidth for anything else. Appreciate your understanding!

 

[Peanut15]

insurance is form of gambling.

For WL or term plan, u gamble if u die early or permeant disability. If u win, u earn lots of money.

For ILP, u gamble in the form of investment with some risk.

Insurance company are legalise bookie who can accept bets on yr health.

 

[XcoVar]

If anything there's always "GoFundMe", sinkies all beri generous de.

 

[mizarahi]

My concern is pre-existing condition. Is high blood pressure a pre-existing condition?
18yo go army already got record high blood pressure. Still evaluated as Pes A.

 

[mummynew]

My dad just died recently last week from a sudden heart attack, so all those hospitalization and critical illness plans are so-called 'wasted' as he barely spent half a day in hospital before declared dead.

20/20 hindsight: Had we all know he'll died suddenly, we would have allocate more on death payout instead of all that medishield/critical illness/long term hospitalization etc

From my experience last week, yes I believe insurance is important. But the many types of insurance, I believe its up to one's discretion - after all you should know your own body better if you have lingering or potential illness.

I'm still in a relatively shock state when everything happened too fast - SGH blk 9, funeral wake, sudden-get-to-know-relatives, Mandai crematorium. Well I guess this happens to everyone and last week's my turn to experience this.

Still in no mood to do anything. Even working is also on autopilot mode

I hopes this post helps people make informed choices, and not a generic 'insurance is useless' statement - problem is 'what type of insurance and at what cost'

If he has CI cover, heart attack will pay.

What's written on the Death Cert will determine whether insurer will pay or not.

*eg, cannot due to an accidental fall then trigger heart attack = no payment. Such case Personal Accident cover if got buy will pay.

 

[Visor9999]

Nothing wrong with his logic, in sg MediShield life can already.

 

[Visor9999]

imo. insurance is like sibei grey....

u cannot dun have it...
u can own it but it doesnt really cover everything.
even if it covers some parts, u still need to fork out cash.
There r also alot of instances where u tot u r covered.. but then the fine prints render u "uncovered"..

This is why no point buying expensive insurance in sg, if no money after Medisave and MediShield, apply Medifund. Save all the cash to spend on current needs, not enriching insurance agents and companies

 

[Full_Cream_Milk]

My concern is pre-existing condition. Is high blood pressure a pre-existing condition?
18yo go army already got record high blood pressure. Still evaluated as Pes A.

Generally yes.

Because it can lead to other health complications.

Best to check with your agent during the underwriting

And declare see if still can claim for related illnesses.

 

[mummynew]

My concern is pre-existing condition. Is high blood pressure a pre-existing condition?
18yo go army already got record high blood pressure. Still evaluated as Pes A.

on medication? If yes, then as far as I know (last time knowledge), AIA may accept under standard terms (meaning without exclusions or premium loading if can proof BP well controlled under medication).

if not on medication = maybe just an occasional high BP episode (that has to be proven by medical check up).

*I remember can do 'anonymous medical underwriting', meaning can get a financial advisor who can submit underwriting to different insurers without giving names. Then wait for the reply to see whether which one can offer no exclusion/premium loading. Cannot submit name coz once submitted then have to answer Yes to the question of "have you ever been offered under special terms by insurer?" kind of question. Financial Advisor is better than tied-agent (meaning only representing one insurer) coz has flexibility to source.

 

[Visor9999]

insurance is form of gambling.

For WL or term plan, u gamble if u die early or permeant disability. If u win, u earn lots of money.

For ILP, u gamble in the form of investment with some risk.

Insurance company are legalise bookie who can accept bets on yr health.

Yes buying expensive insurance is like paying casino levy daily to hope to win money, the house always win. Best way not to lose money is don’t go casino which also means don’t buy unnecessary insurance

 

[mummynew]

I think part of the disdain comes from

Frequent news of insurance companies refusing to honour claims and payouts.

Or very difficult to claim wait many months of processing.

Not sure how true or how frequent it is in real life but maybe there’s some truth in it?

I think insurers' first instinct when handling every claim is to DISPUTE.

If straight fwd case = pay fast.

If grey area = delay with through and flow correspondence (like if injured/died in a car accident, first thing to check whether got alcohol/jaywalking involved; died of lung cancer would likely to investigate whether got bluff in smoker/non-smoker status when applying, etc).

Fine prints are plenty and they are important, even in normal travel insurance policies that some don't cover 'adventurous activities' incl bungee jumping, ziplining, etc. So if dont read and then died of ziplining then insurer doesnt pay, then cannot say they dont wanna honour payment. It's all in the fine prints (and the reasons of why some premiums are cheaper than others).

 

[Strangemushroom]

If he has CI cover, heart attack will pay.

What's written on the Death Cert will determine whether insurer will pay or not.

*eg, cannot due to an accidental fall then trigger heart attack = no payment. Such case Personal Accident cover if got buy will pay.

Death Cert inside so long and funky - hypertensive heart disease and coronary artery disease

Dunno if it's heart attack or cardiac arrest

 

[mummynew]

Death Cert inside so long and funky - hypertensive heart disease and coronary artery disease

Dunno if it's heart attack or cardiac arrest

My condolences to your family for your sudden loss.

Apologise as I re-read your scenario of SUDDEN DEATH from a CI, meaning your late dad had not been diagnosed with this condition before ("he barely spent half a day in hospital before declared dead.")

Your dad's CI is an independent policy not tagged with any Term/Life policy which is usually the case? If tagged, then will get the full Death Benefits. If it's an independent cover, then some may offer a fraction of the Sum Assured (depending on the fine prints of the policy as independent CI policies are plenty in the market).

Take your time to process the needful for your late dad.

*Get the agent if you have to ask about the CI policy if you can't get through reading the fine prints yourself. Check your dad's ISP whether the policy will pay a token sum for final expenses (my late mum's time there was a token of $3000 paid). The details are all in the fine prints.

 

[Eatsleepeatsleep]

The first thing I got once I started working is hospitalisation plan. You never know when sickness falls on you.

 

[Strangemushroom]

My condolences to your family for your sudden loss.

Apologise as I re-read your scenario of SUDDEN DEATH from a CI, meaning your late dad had not been diagnosed with this condition before ("he barely spent half a day in hospital before declared dead.")

Your dad's CI is an independent policy not tagged with any Term/Life policy which is usually the case? If tagged, then will get the full Death Benefits. If it's an independent cover, then some may offer a fraction of the Sum Assured (depending on the fine prints of the policy as independent CI policies are plenty in the market).

Take your time to process the needful for your late dad.

*Get the agent if you have to ask about the CI policy if you can't get through reading the fine prints yourself. Check your dad's ISP whether the policy will pay a token sum for final expenses (my late mum's time there was a token of $3000 paid). The details are all in the fine prints.

Thank you I appreciate your suggestion

yes we’re still working on the insurance with CGH n our agent who kept asking for docs from CGH…

 

[OddEye]

Ilp is a scam..life insurance is semi scam..others depends

 

[oncall-engineer]

The first thing I got once I started working is hospitalisation plan. You never know when sickness falls on you.

If no insurance, kena 1 x good one, need to sell SPY, NVDA, TSLA to raise cash to pay bill.