Summary: Income protection insurance is a great option for people that are working and are looking to save money as well as get some insurance cover. Income protection works like regular insurance and it insures you against the loss of income. It works the following way.
There are a few kinds of health insurance available:
Hospital and Surgical Insurance
Hospital Cash Benefit
Critical Illness
Long Term Care Insurance
Disability Income Insurance
Ubezpieczenie Dochodu (Income Insurance) is most immediate, urgent and a must plan for everybody. Illness and accident can occur to anybody anytime, anywhere. So when it is so serious that hospitalization and/or surgery is required, there will be a substantial sum of money incurred. And it is a necessity to get us well and up again so that we can continue to lead our normal life, be it be continue to work, take care of family or to study.
Cover the hospitalization needs
If we buy any shield plan to cover the hospitalization needs, the premium can be paid from your own or family member's. With an additional small sum of premium, there are now a few private shield plans that covers the full hospital bills for both the government/restructure and private hospital. Even if you are financially stable and cash-rich, you may not want the hospitalization to wipe out your savings for business expansion, your child's education, your holiday plan or even your retirement! It is a small sum of premium to pay to enjoy such a great assurance just in case... Touch wood, but disaster or accident always strikes when you least expect it.
Offer total coverage
There are currently two insurers that offer total coverage (i.e. as charged) from first dollars, NTUC Income and Prudential. You may check out their websites for the premium and coverage. Note also that even if the medical procedure/operation is covered by the insurance, pre-hospitalization deposit may still be required when admitting to hospital unless a Letter of Guarantee is provided for by the insurer. There are 4 circumstances under which these benefits can be paid. These are:
Payment in case of accident.
Payment in case of short term disability.
Payment in case of long term disability.
Payment after maturity of plan.
Hospital cash benefit
Hospital cash benefit is a benefit plan whereby the insurer will pay you regardless the number of policies you have and the actual expenditure you incurred in hospital. It can be used to offset the loss of income and personal expenses while in hospital. t pays a fixed sum of money per day, up to 365 days.
Ubezpieczenie Na Życie (Life Insurance) varies among insurers but it usually includes heart attack, cancers, stroke, kidney failure, paralysis, major organ transplant etc. It is important to all ages because we will need the money to buy essential medicine, tonics to improve our health once out of hospital. There may be a need to even employ maid to take care of our everyday livings and/or essential aids to help in our daily livings. All this cost money and we do not want to impose financial burden to our family. Critical illness insurance is about getting ourselves well again from the insurer's payout.
Long term care insurance
Long Term Care Insurance is designed to meet the cost of care of a person who is physically impaired that he needs help from others to perform the most basic activities of daily living. The activities of daily living include washing/bathing, dressing, feeding, toileting, mobility and transferring. Some insurer will start the payout if the insured cannot perform any 3 of the activities. It is the long term care insurance offered by the Singapore Government from age 40.
Disability income insurance
The insurance provides a personal income replacement if the insured is unable to work in the current job. The amount is payable monthly and it is up to a certain percentage (usually 75%) of the salary drawn. The insured has to be disabled for 3-6 months before the insurer will commence the payment of benefits to the insured till he recovers or till a certain age, say 65 years old. This insurance is important to the sole breadwinner who brings beacon to the family. Disability is often referred to in life insurance circles as the worse hazard, because if you become disabled:
You stop earning salaries or wages,
Your life insurance policies will not pay a claim, since you didn't die,
Your illness will consume a significant portion of available funds.
As you can see, the risk of disability due to illness or injury is great. The cost of not being prepared is severe. Why take the chance? Even substantial savings can run out quickly if it is your only source of financial support.
The amount paid is 75% of the person's salary on the 1st of July of the previous year. Before you sign on for any plan please make sure you know what you are signing on for. There are many people that are disappointed later because they did not get the whole picture. So please read the fine print as well. This may be tedious but it will tell you the conditions the policy is under and you will have to abide by.
