Do you know if your parents have (enough) H&S coverage?

There are certain topics that many people avoid talking about at home. 

Money is one such topic.

Sometimes, due to this reticence, we discover too late that someone in the family might be heading for a financial disaster or that someone in the family might not have certain necessary insurance protection.

In such instances, other family members might have to help out financially if they are able to. 

What if they do not have the ability to do so? 

That is one scary thought, isn't it?





This is taken from a recent conversation with a reader:

Hello AK,

It's me again, the one who got in touch with you via Facebook recently :D

I am currently reviewing my insurance plans, fueled by my recent visit to the CPF board for my dad's CPF Life inquiries. 

One thing lead to another and I realized that he only has Eldershield on and no H&S plans at all. Thus I'm inclined to grab one for him.

The plan (hah!) I have for my dad is to have to maximize his $800 cap to pay for his private insurance, with any additional necessary cash top-ups to be done on my end, which can be part of my tax-relief(ed) contributions towards his Medisave.

As much as I want the best for him, question is, given his age and thus the increasing premiums, should I go for the highest possible plan or exercise prudence by going with what I can afford? 

If it's the latter, what's the bare minimum then for me to effectively not worry to a large extent should he be hospitalized?

Hear from you soon, AK :)

Sincerely,

F

What? No H&S plan? Alamak!

Firstly, I must apologise to F because I forgot to mention to him that contributing to his father's CPF-MA does not give him any income tax relief. 

I believe that a voluntary contribution to the CPF-MA gives income tax relief to the recipient only. 

He might want to check with the CPF Board on this to be sure.






My reply to F:

Hi F,

H&S is very important and a must have for everyone. Very lucky that you discovered your dad has no H&S coverage. 

He should definitely get coverage ASAP!

A long, long time ago when I first compared H&S plans, I decided to go with Incomeshield from NTUC and I have stuck with them since, upgrading my plan over the years. 

I got my mom in on this as well and, like you observed, upgraded her plan not too long ago too.

It is true that the yearly premium will get more expensive as we age and for my mom who is almost 70 years old, it is more than $2,000 a year. 

She finds it expensive but I told her it isn't and I will pay for her. I want her to be comfortable if she should be hospitalised and I want to be worry free when it comes to my share of the cost. 

10% of the bill with an annual cap of $3,000? That's OK. :)






Which H&S plan should you get for your dad? You have to compare the different options available and decide for yourself, of course. 

Remember, insurance is there to help us deal with bad things that might happen to us. 

It is to help us to cope with costs which we might not be able to deal with ourselves. 

As we bear this in mind, we also want to keep the cost of insurance low.

Of course, if we can afford to pay for better healthcare for our parents, why not? 

I think they deserve it. 

To make better healthcare more affordable for us, we need a good H&S policy. :) 

The yearly premium is predictable and is something we can budget for. 

The cost of hospitalisation is not predictable. ;)

Best wishes,

AK

I have talked to myself about the importance of having a good H&S plan from time to time here in my blog, of course. 

This is not something new.

However, the conversation with F nudged me to once again remind readers, especially those new to my blog, to have a conversation with family members, especially our elders, to ensure that they have H&S coverage and if they do have coverage, we want to check if the coverage is adequate when considering the types of hospital and ward preferred.





We shouldn't drag our feet when it comes to something like this. 

The weekend is upon us. 

Go talk.

Related posts:
1. Enhanced Incomeshield for my mom.
2. Eldershield: Is it really necessary?
3. Eldershield: What does it shield us from?
4. Save money and have better H&S for parents?
5. Voluntary contributions to CPF.
"My dad is still working and paying income tax. So, with regular voluntary contributions to his Medisave Account from me, he will pay less income tax too. Yes, it is tax-deductible for the recipient only."