Being Insured For Health
What health insurance do you have? Do you have enough money in your Medisave, and Medishield and other forms? Today’s papers talked about some Aids sufferers having their Medisave wiped out from the monthly bills they spend on medicine. While this is currently not a problem in Singapore, there are other chronic illnesses that may wipe out savings.
My grandmother suffered from kidney failure, and the monthly bills come up to $3000 alone. That could be the monthly salary of many people. How on earth are they going to afford their medical bills if they can’t work because of their illness?
It’s common knowledge that the people who suffer the most from ill health and the inability to take sufficient care of their health and welfare are those people who are in debt and don’t have sufficient income to see their doctor or to get a problem sorted when it first occurs.
You need to understand that without good health everything becomes more difficult including your ability to make money and your ability to reduce and eliminate debt.
You can’t help yourself to move forward if you’re in such a state that it is difficult to do what is necessary to achieve your goals.
Your health is of the utmost importance and this is something that you need to take care of for the rest of your life and letting any aspects of health deteriorate during these times of financial turmoil could mean that you require ongoing medical expenditure for the rest of your life.
When it comes to the crunch it is better to be bankrupt than sick in hospital. You can certainly turn your finances around by following the right steps and focusing on achieving your goals however if you let your health deteriorate to such an extent that you have to live with problems for the rest of your life then no amount of money you make in the future will be able to get back that good health.
While you will be looking to reduce your daily spending and reduce your food bill you also need to be aware that you should only buy foods and drink that will help you maintain good health.
Don’t buy soda drinks when drinking water is better for you. Don’t buy takeaways when cooking your own meals is healthier and less expensive.
You will even save money on gas from not having to drive down the road to buy your fast food if you are cooking at home.
You can save money and maintain your health and welfare and that is something that you will need to consider when you are preparing your budget.
Sometimes, simple accidents can cost a lot of money. One boy injured his metatarsal and fractured his foot and couldn’t claim insurance money from his school insurance as he practised his game away from school. The bills came up to more than $1000, and the money he earned from temping at jobs were totally wiped out.
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Do you have S$9k in your Medisave?
If you have, then you most probably have enough to last to pay for an “as-charged” private medical insurance plan (approved by Ministry of Health) til age 65. This is calculated on the following basis:-
a) that CPF interest rates for Medisave account remains about 4% p.a for the next few decades;
b) that premiums for the private medical insurance plans do not increase substantially as a result of “claim experience”;
Similiarly, I calculated the NPV of the rider plans and plotted them on the following chart
See http://www.waynekoh.com/2008/04/do-you-have-s9k-in-your-medisave.html