Why health insurance is important (personal experience)

I have a 9 month old son and the experience has been overwhelming but rewarding. All parents will know that infants cry for a lot of reasons (eg, hungry, pooped just to name a couple).  The biggest worry is when infants fall sick because they cannot express themselves.  It happened to me about three months ago when my son’s fever just does not subside after a few days of taking paracetamol and ibuprofen after he took a vaccination jab.

My wife and I brought our son down to the A&E department of private hospital as we have already insured him through one of the integrated shield plans for private hospitals. After four days of hospitalization (including blood test, urine test and several medication), my son recovered and was discharged.

The recent Medishield Life discussion prompted me to look at my son’s hospitalization bill and the medical insurance claim. See below diagram for the breakdown and my analysis.

“After-Action-Review”

I am very glad that I had purchase a health insurance for my son. Compared against the total bill of $7k , $1k (majority from CPF-Medisave) is definitely much more affordable and easier on the pocket.  In addition, I can also claim for pre- and post-discharge medical fees (+/- 90 days) for my son.

While Medishield Life is good, its enough to cover one for up to B2 ward in government restructured hospitals and will only be implemented in 2015. Personally, I do not have very good opinions of government restructured hospitals due to various experiences, hence I only opt for the private hospitals.

I highly recommend new parents to get an integrated shield plan (private hospital) for their children because:
– you want to insure them when they are young and healthy;
– of guaranteed renewal;
– you can bring them to private hospital (especially for infants, you want fast and prompt service);
– you still have the choice of going to government restructured hospital (if you really want to)

Does your child have a health insurance?  If not, you should start to think about getting one for him/her and yourself as well.

PS: With the $825 daily cash rider payout, the daily cash rider premium for the next 9 years has already been paid for. 🙂