BBCWatcher
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As long as she's satisfied with public hospital B2+ ward (or B2 or C), NTUC's Enhanced IncomeShield C plan is an appropriate match. However, her pre-existing conditions (if she has any) would be excluded, except for the MediShield Life benefits.(*) I also think that NTUC's Assist Rider is particularly important for this plan. Adding the Assist Rider means that NTUC would provide "first dollar" coverage (for covered services). For the first $15,000 of covered medical expenses per year, your mother would pay 10% (which can usually be paid from Medisave if she has Medisave funds available) -- so the annual maximum she would pay (cash and/or Medisave) for covered services is $1,500 if she has the Assist Rider. That "first dollar" Assist Rider is a good deal with this plan, in my view. For somebody age 62 the Assist Rider costs $224/year and would need to be paid in cash. So that's a total of $1,172 per year (age 62/citizen example). MediShield Life alone is $755 per year (age 62), so the additional cost for Enhanced IncomeShield C plus the Assist Rider is $417/year at this age. For the additional $417, the base plan ($193) can be paid with Medisave, and the Assist Rider ($224) in cash.Thanks for your inputs too.. and yes, I was actually looking at NTUC’s Enhanced IncomeShield C too , so is this the most suitable premium ?
Let's use another age as an example: age 82. Current premiums (subject to medical inflation) are:
MediShield Life: $1,250 (can all be paid with Medisave)
Enhanced IncomeShield C Base Plan: $987 ($900 can be paid with Medisave)
Assist Rider: $725 (cash only)
Those are current premium rates, remember. Twenty years from now the premiums will undoubtedly be higher due to medical inflation. But this is really as inexpensive as it gets for stepping up to Integrated Shield coverage. Again, this particular NTUC plan is only for public hospital B2+ ward and below. (KKH, as a notable example for her, offers a B2+ ward.) Enhanced IncomeShield C is not designed for anything higher.
(*) Because of these pre-existing condition exclusions, typical middle age and older people who are signing up for their first Integrated Shield plan are probably better off with "as charged" public hospital B2 or (at most) B1 ward plans. The reason is that, if they check themselves into a more expensive hospital ward, the insurer could deny the claim anyway. They'd fall back to MediShield Life coverage, and MediShield Life would pay very little. They'd then be stuck with large medical bills. So, most likely, they'll try to avoid that big bill risk by checking into a lower cost hospital ward at the very beginning. The government says this is exactly what people are doing, even if they have insurance that supposedly covers the more expensive wards. They seem to be buying the more expensive insurance, but they fear it won't cover them.
So why buy an expensive Integrated Shield plan that covers hospital wards (public hospital A, or private hospitals) that they would never use due to the risk of a denied claim? It doesn't make much sense to me. (For younger people without pre-existing conditions, OK, sign up for the more expensive Integrated Shield plan if you wish.)
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