Shopping For A Hospitalization and Surgical Insurance Policy - Part 2
Picking up where I stopped in optical communicationPart 1, I am now facing how to choose between high annual limit with low life time limit and vice versa. Annual limit is the maximum allowable claim in a year, while lifetime limit is the maximum allowable claim throught out the policy period. You are only covered as long as your claims are within these limits. In most cases, the lifetime limit is 3-4 times of annual limit.
Thought it did not met my criteria, I am however attracted to Prudential HSI simply because it lowest lifetime limit is RM500,000 and it goes all the way to RM1.50 million. However, on the other hand, I have reservation on its annual limit which starts as low as RM50,000 to the maximum RM150,000.
Thinking for the worst, I am setting RM100,000 as the minimum annual limit, based onaverage treatment cost for any cancer.
Then come the question should I go for higher lifetime limit such as RM1.50 million, after some thinking, I concluded that No. My reasons are simple, such high limit will be most beneficial if every year for the next 10 years I have MAJOR medication needs - that every yaer I am having a serious and costly medical event. If this likely to happen? I like to think no. Of course, I am also reluctant to pay the high premium that comes alone.
By placing priority on high annual limit rather then high lifetime limit, I am making a assumption that at most, I will have 2-3 major medical conditions throught out my life and therefore hight annual limit which I need now is far more important than high lifetime limit with low annual limit.
Here are a SELECTED PLAN from MAA, Great Eastern Assurance and Pridential for a quick comparison:
I am now zooming down to MAA & GEA. The advantage of MAA over GEA is that it does not have any co-payment (co-insurance) - I don’t have to pay a single cent if I keep to my room and board limit, whereas for GEA, I have to pay 10% or max RM500 for any treatment even if I stayed within the R&B limit. MAA also offers coverge up to 79 year old - a useful feature considering that Malaysia average life span is 72 for men and 74 for women, and these are the times that one probably needs medical attention the most.
Premium
When come to insurance premium, it all depends on how old are you now and more or less are in the same price band. However, that doesn’t mean that since the premium is about the same for all companies, you can just buy from any of them! Always check the annual and lifetime limit, terms on renewal, any co-insurance, etc.
Here are a quick comparison:
Great Eastern Assurance’s premium is lower than MAA, however, by factor in the 10% or RM500 co-insurance, the actual cost is higher than MAA. Again, it is very clear that you get what you pay for.