Private Shield

Hi Mr Tan,

I wish you can read the newspaper article on Sunday Times on 4 November, about a person who lost 40 years of hard earned Medisave funds, just because he wants to save on the premium on a private Shield plan.

REPLY

For every person in this unfortunate situation, there must be many thousands of people who paid a lot more in insurance premium for unnecessary coverage.

Many people do not have sufficient savings for the future, because they spent too much on unnecessary coverage during their younger days, due to poor advice given to them by people with vested interest.

If you are insured under Medishield, you should go to a subsidised ward, where the cost is capped. There is no need to go to an expensive ward or private hospital and incur unnecessary medical cost.

In the case mentioned above, I was told that this person did not have any coverage, not even Medishield. If he had bought Medishield, he would not have to wipe out 40 years of Medisave savings. He only needs to pay the Deductible and Co-insurance.