Post by oldman on Apr 19, 2015 5:37:47 GMT 7
Private cancer treatment in Singapore is very expensive. I went to a private hospital and the surgery with 4 night's stay cost $45,000. The hospital required deposits of $25,000 and I had to use my credit cards to pay for these deposits given that this was not a planned admission. The colonoscopy, gastroscopy and all the xrays and blood tests cost another $5,000. Every chemotherapy cycle cost an average of $6,000. So 8 cycles will cost around $48,000.
So, the entire cost of treating the colon cancer so far, is around $100,000.
Fortunately for me, I had previously bought a premium health insurance plan with no deductibles or co-payments. The insurance company promptly paid 100% of all these bills. However, one has to pay the hospital and clinics upfront first and then, the insurance company pays the hospital and clinics and one has then to wait for the refunds from the hospital and clinics. The time difference between paying the hospital and getting the refund cheque is usually 6 to 8 weeks. This means that even if you have the right health insurance, you have also to set aside a large sum of money to cater for this time difference of paying the hospital bill and receiving the refund. For me, this floating sum was in the region of $40,000 at its peak. Yes, it would have been a lot easier if the hospitals and clinics wait to be paid by the insurance company directly but sadly, this is not the usual way it works with private healthcare in Singapore.
It is very important that all of us have the best health insurance plan that we can afford. This is why, in my article on insurance ( Getting the right insurance ), I stressed that health insurance is more important than any other insurance that your agent will try to sell you.
I am also very lucky that I have retired and don't have to go to work during these 6 months of chemotherapy. If I had to work, I may not have handled these 6 months that well. This is because one cannot predict with any certainty how one will feel on any given day. I feel sorry for those who have to work while on chemotherapy.
If you are unable to work during chemotherapy, you will need to find a way to pay your family's expenditure during these 6 months. You will also need to find a way of covering the family's daily expenses and paying off the monthly mortgage, car loan and utility bills. If one were to have bought a critical illness plan, he may be able to get a lump sum of money once the diagnosis has been made. This amount of money may help the family during these 6 months and beyond.
If one were to have bought a critical illness plan without any health insurance coverage, then one will also have to use part of this lump sum payment to pay for all the medical expenses that are not covered by any government grants. Hence, I always recommend that folks buy the best health insurance plan first and then, if you have extra money, you can look at critical illness plans later.
Even with insurance, you have to look after yourself first before you can look after your dependents. In other words, before you become sick, you want sufficient insurance to cover all or most of your hospital bills. If you are the sole bread earner in the family, this becomes even more important. Hence, the importance of health insurance. If you have just a pure life insurance plan that only pays out on your untimely death, your insurance policy will not cover any of your medical expenses and will not give you a lump sum on the diagnosis of a critical illness. You are then on your own even though you have bought 'insurance'.
For me, I have health insurance plans, critical illness plans as well as pure life insurance plans for all members of my family. These cost me several thousand dollars a month and I have often asked my insurance agent on how to reduce this amount given that I have retired. He could not give me a good answer. Interestingly, with this diagnosis of cancer, my insurance cost per month have been reduced to just a few hundred dollars. Yes, a sort of blessing in disguise. On being diagnosed with cancer, many of the critical illness and pure life policies had critical illness riders such that I don't have to pay any further premiums. The only payouts however, came from my own critical illness policies.
For the critical illness policies for my kids and the pure life policies, these will all remain in limbo as the conditions for the payouts have not been met. In other words, when you buy any insurance policies for your dependents, you are unlikely to see any of the money that you have 'invested' in these insurance policies even on your untimely death. Your children too will not be able to get the money unless they have a critical illness or they suffer an untimely death. Sadly, it is only when such life changing events happen, can we really understand the downside of buying insurance policies for your kids.
For those of us who have insurance policies, it is good to find out from your insurance agents whether there are critical illness riders that you can buy with these plans. With these riders, you will be exempted from paying future premiums in the event you have a critical illness. The removal of these monthly premiums will be useful when you are battling a critical illness as you want to focus on fighting the disease rather than sorting out any money issues.
Before being diagnosed with cancer, I had booked 2 overseas trips.... one with the family and one by myself. Fortunately, I always buy travel insurance at the same time as when I buy the tickets. The standard practice is to cancel the tickets and you then claim back that loss portion. I was able to cancel my family trip and claim back the losses of each of the tickets. But each ticket required me to fill in a detailed insurance claim form. With my personal overseas trip, I was unable to cancel the ticket and the insurance company paid the full ticket price. It is always a good habit to buy your travel insurance at around the same time as you buy your tickets so that in the event of unforeseeable circumstances happening before the trip, these too are likely to be covered.
So, the entire cost of treating the colon cancer so far, is around $100,000.
Fortunately for me, I had previously bought a premium health insurance plan with no deductibles or co-payments. The insurance company promptly paid 100% of all these bills. However, one has to pay the hospital and clinics upfront first and then, the insurance company pays the hospital and clinics and one has then to wait for the refunds from the hospital and clinics. The time difference between paying the hospital and getting the refund cheque is usually 6 to 8 weeks. This means that even if you have the right health insurance, you have also to set aside a large sum of money to cater for this time difference of paying the hospital bill and receiving the refund. For me, this floating sum was in the region of $40,000 at its peak. Yes, it would have been a lot easier if the hospitals and clinics wait to be paid by the insurance company directly but sadly, this is not the usual way it works with private healthcare in Singapore.
It is very important that all of us have the best health insurance plan that we can afford. This is why, in my article on insurance ( Getting the right insurance ), I stressed that health insurance is more important than any other insurance that your agent will try to sell you.
I am also very lucky that I have retired and don't have to go to work during these 6 months of chemotherapy. If I had to work, I may not have handled these 6 months that well. This is because one cannot predict with any certainty how one will feel on any given day. I feel sorry for those who have to work while on chemotherapy.
If you are unable to work during chemotherapy, you will need to find a way to pay your family's expenditure during these 6 months. You will also need to find a way of covering the family's daily expenses and paying off the monthly mortgage, car loan and utility bills. If one were to have bought a critical illness plan, he may be able to get a lump sum of money once the diagnosis has been made. This amount of money may help the family during these 6 months and beyond.
If one were to have bought a critical illness plan without any health insurance coverage, then one will also have to use part of this lump sum payment to pay for all the medical expenses that are not covered by any government grants. Hence, I always recommend that folks buy the best health insurance plan first and then, if you have extra money, you can look at critical illness plans later.
Even with insurance, you have to look after yourself first before you can look after your dependents. In other words, before you become sick, you want sufficient insurance to cover all or most of your hospital bills. If you are the sole bread earner in the family, this becomes even more important. Hence, the importance of health insurance. If you have just a pure life insurance plan that only pays out on your untimely death, your insurance policy will not cover any of your medical expenses and will not give you a lump sum on the diagnosis of a critical illness. You are then on your own even though you have bought 'insurance'.
For me, I have health insurance plans, critical illness plans as well as pure life insurance plans for all members of my family. These cost me several thousand dollars a month and I have often asked my insurance agent on how to reduce this amount given that I have retired. He could not give me a good answer. Interestingly, with this diagnosis of cancer, my insurance cost per month have been reduced to just a few hundred dollars. Yes, a sort of blessing in disguise. On being diagnosed with cancer, many of the critical illness and pure life policies had critical illness riders such that I don't have to pay any further premiums. The only payouts however, came from my own critical illness policies.
For the critical illness policies for my kids and the pure life policies, these will all remain in limbo as the conditions for the payouts have not been met. In other words, when you buy any insurance policies for your dependents, you are unlikely to see any of the money that you have 'invested' in these insurance policies even on your untimely death. Your children too will not be able to get the money unless they have a critical illness or they suffer an untimely death. Sadly, it is only when such life changing events happen, can we really understand the downside of buying insurance policies for your kids.
For those of us who have insurance policies, it is good to find out from your insurance agents whether there are critical illness riders that you can buy with these plans. With these riders, you will be exempted from paying future premiums in the event you have a critical illness. The removal of these monthly premiums will be useful when you are battling a critical illness as you want to focus on fighting the disease rather than sorting out any money issues.
Before being diagnosed with cancer, I had booked 2 overseas trips.... one with the family and one by myself. Fortunately, I always buy travel insurance at the same time as when I buy the tickets. The standard practice is to cancel the tickets and you then claim back that loss portion. I was able to cancel my family trip and claim back the losses of each of the tickets. But each ticket required me to fill in a detailed insurance claim form. With my personal overseas trip, I was unable to cancel the ticket and the insurance company paid the full ticket price. It is always a good habit to buy your travel insurance at around the same time as you buy your tickets so that in the event of unforeseeable circumstances happening before the trip, these too are likely to be covered.
