With high inflation rates in Singapore, we cannot avoid the high cost of medical fees BUT we have discovered 3 tips to help you pay less on premiums, especially if you are looking for a Private Shield Plan.
We will skip the intro of Integrated Shield Plan (You can still read how it works separately here)
What is an Integrated Shield Private Plan and why is it ‘expensive’?
The Private Shield Plan basically provides you access to all Private and Public Hospital treatments in Singapore for hospitalisation and surgical coverage. Due to its broad coverage and high benefit limits, the price (a.k.a premiums) of such Private Plans is expectedly high.
The issue is made worse by the fact that medical cost and inflation in Singapore are both increasing. As such, the cost of insurance to cover medical cost is also moving in the upward direction.
Tip #1 – Consider whether you need the 100% rider, 95% rider, or no co-pay rider at all
Full Riders that cover 100% of your medicals bills may look really attractive as you don’t need to pay a single cent of your medical bills, but their price tag is hefty too.
Owning a rider that covers 95% of your medical bills can be much friendlier to your wallet as the cost of your rider is being paid in cash and is not deductible from your Medisave.
If you wish to manage your budget further, forget about adding riders to your Shield plans. You just need to pay for the deductibles and co-insurance should you need to be hospitalised or require surgery. The bulk of the bill will still be charged to your insurance policy.
Tip #2 – Take advantage of plans with special options
Maybe you like the coverage provided under a Private Plan but is uncomfortable with the premium levels, yet moving to a Public Hospital A plan makes you feel that you’re losing out on comfort and convenience. What a difficult decision to make!
A plan with special option now exists where you can get coverage access to all public hospitals and one private hospital (Raffles Hospital). The price is also reasonably placed between a Private Plan and a Public Hospital A Plan. This is the Raffles Shield A with Raffles Hospital Option.
Here’s some simple scenarios to illustrate the type of savings for some ages as well as accumulated savings over time.
Do note that the premiums below include the Medishield Life Premiums.
Tip #3 – Start on a lower plan then step up
You can actually start on a lower type of plan and upgrade when you have a bigger budget or prefer better coverage and comfort should hospitalisation and surgical treatments are required.
A word of caution though: all, if not most insurance companies would perform an additional round of underwriting assessment on any forms of plan upgrades and additions of riders. Hence, upgrades are not guaranteed.
There are some plans which offer an upgrade period for which additional underwriting is waived. One such example is the Guaranteed Upgrade feature in Raffles Shield B and Raffles Shield A Plan. The only 3 conditions to meet to use this upgrade is that you must upgrade during the first 5 years from the start of your policy and you have made no claims or downgrades since.
Here’s a simple example below of a 36-years old who took advantage of the guaranteed upgrade and saved $408 in 5 years, not bad.
3 tips to save on your Integrated Shield Private Plan Premium
We hope you may find these tips useful.
What we have shared above may only reflect some of the perspectives and information considered for Health Insurance Planning and did not consider factors such as individual preferences, budget and needs.
Hence we strongly recommend you speak to your personal financial adviser before making any financial decisions.
If you like to find out more about Raffles Shield from our Raffles Health Advisers, you can contact us here.
