Enhanced Incomeshield (H&S) for my mom.

When I signed up for Incomeshield in 1999, my mom signed up for it too, convinced of the benefits. I tried to get my dad to sign up for it too but he didn't and now it is too late because of his many ailments. He only has basic Medishield.

I upgraded to Enhanced Incomeshield with an Assist Rider when it became available a few years ago. So, it means that I only have to pay 10% of my total medical bills if I were to be hospitalised and this 10% has an annual cap of $3,000 in my case. So, if my hospitalisation and related bills were to total more than $30,000 in any year, I would still pay a maximum of only $3,000.







Recently, I convinced my mom to upgrade her basic Incomeshield to the same as what I have. It took me a while to convince her because of the cost involved.

As we grow older, the premium increases and she was concerned that she would end up having to pay more than $2,000 a year for the upgrade. I told her that I was not worried about the cost. I was more worried that NTUC Income might not approve the upgrade.

As my paternal grandmother is now undergoing long term treatment, I used her as an example. She only had basic Medishield and it expired when she turned 80. Her medical bills run easily into the tens of thousands of dollars a year. Even with basic Medishield, she depleted my father's Medisave account and more.

I told my mom that the annual premium is money well spent and that I would pay on her behalf if need be. After all, without a good hospitalisation and surgery plan, I could possibly be paying for her future hospitalisation bills.







My mom was not happy with what I said. Oh, yes, she is quite "pantang" (which means "superstitious" in local lingo for those who don't know).

Well, when I am convinced about something, I am relentless in pursuing the course. My mom actually complained that I was nagging! Finally, she gave in and I brought her to NTUC Income Centre to do the necessary.

I am pleased to say that her upgrade has recently been approved with coverage excluding a pre-existing condition. Now, at least, I only have to worry about paying for my dad's future medical bills because basic Medishield is not as good when it comes to cost sharing.

I would urge everyone to consider not only getting a good lifetime hospitalisation and surgery (H&S) plan for ourselves but also for our parents, if they do not have one already. The peace of mind that comes with this is priceless.







I am not doing this to advertise for NTUC Income. It just so happens that I have been with them for a long time and I know this product. You should definitely shop around and compare the different products available. If you have not done this, do it soon. Do it today, if you can.

Just make sure it is a lifetime plan and make sure to buy a rider to cover the deductibles which leaves only the co-insurance payable by us in the event of a claim. We can use the money in our Medisave account to help pay the premium for the plan but not the cost of the rider.

I hope no one is "pantang" about me talking about something like this a few days before the Chinese New Year.

Related posts:
1. Millionaire or not, plan for retirement.
2. Eldershield.
3. What should a Singaporean have by age 35?

ASSI is too slow or so they say.

Someone told me that my blog takes forever to load. So, being somewhat concerned that this could be the case for more than just one person, I decided to read up on the topic.

I am not a savvy person when it comes to IT but Google makes it easy for people like me. So, why is a fast loading speed important?

Why do people want to go everywhere in a hurry?
Take it slow. Take in the sights.

Google says "The speed at which your blog loads is critical to attracting more readers to your blog. If your blog takes a long time to load, many readers may leave your blog before they have the chance to read it." This makes sense. We humans are an impatient lot. We want instant gratification!

Next, I used PageSpeed to do a health check for ASSI. Here is the link: PageSpeed.

Click on "Analyse your site online" and enter the blog's URL. Easy.

The analysis will give the blog a score. A higher score indicates little room for improvement. ASSI scored 93 out of 100. Yeah!

However, the PageSpeed Score does not measure the time it takes for a page to load. Oh...

OK, you will love this website I found that will tell you exactly how long it takes for a webpage to load. Here is the link: Stopwatch!

ASSI today took 6.8 seconds to load. That is not too bad, I feel, especially when we take into consideration that I embedded two videos today. Without the videos, the loading speed should be faster.

I think I shall suggest to the complainant to get a faster internet connection. (wink)

Related post:
Bloggy Award
(I dug out this really old blog post dated 9 January 2010. I was so fresh to blogosphere then.)