What is the priority , Life insurance or Medical insurance

I am not promoting insurance for any insurance company, but, I think it is important for us to know what is the priority when decided to start invest into insurance plan for ourself or for family , and I wish my sharing is helpful .

My first insurance policy is Life Insurance and follow by Term Insurance.

Thereafter, when I am better financially, agent introduce me to Hospitalisation insurance policy and Hospital income policy .

Reason that I go for Term insurance is basically to get a good coverage amount for Life with minimum yearly premium. The policy give no return to premium paid and it's cover for a period of time, say 10 ; 15 or 20 years, depend on your age and the policy terms and onlycover for death.

The hospitalisation insurance policy help me to settle most of my expenses for my cancer treatment and the hospital income insurance policy compensate me for lost of income when I am admit to hospital .

Then, the critical illness rider to my life insurance policy, pay me a lumpsum amount once insurance company accepted my diagnosis report .

Today, with the escalating healthcare expenses, my suggestion is to have hospitalisation insurance policy as first priority . As this will keep us from the main worry ...
" medical expenses ", when something happen and we need to be hospitalise for treatment.

It may not cover everything ( depends on the sum insured and type of policy your purchase ) , but, it'll be a good assistance .

If my information is correct, for a person at age between 20 to 30 years old, the premium for maximum coverage upto about Rm 500k to a million life time coverage, should be between Rm 1 to 2 K yearly, or Rm 100+ per month. But, please take note that when you have Rm 500K to a million coverage per life time , do not mean that you will be paid for full amount if your expenses when hospitalise is less then the maximum coverage ( say Rm 500 K)

The policy normally come with terms n conditions for limit per year or per confinement . Most of the policy also with condition of 10 to 20 or 30% of co-insured amount, where , the policy holder have to pay the co-insured amount as per policy term .

The other issue to take note is the maximum per day hospital room expenses. Some policy work this way ; example ... if the maximum room per night allow is Rm 300.00 , please ensure you stay in a room not exceeding Rm 300.00 per night, or you have to pay for the differences of the room charge, then, you also have to pay for the purata of the total expenses. Example , maximum room per night Rm 150 and you stay in room for Rm 300.00, you may have to pay for 50% of the total expenses.

So, it is very very important to read and understand all the terms and conditions of the policy before you sign up and also to read the terms and condition printed in your original policy once you have it from Insurance agent , any discrepancy, should check and verify immediately.

Next is the proper declaration of your previous health record and declare your record properly, to avoid any dispute when you submit claim against insurance company, as insurance company have the right to search and check your record with all clinic and hospital to confirm whether you have made false declaration to them.

Last is to take note of the grace period , most policy have grace period for some illness for 3 months to one year from the policy effective date . It is important to understand the policy terms.

Note : Some of you may say that your company have arranged medical/hospitalisation insurance
policy for you . Yes ! You are lucky and some also extend the cover for your family . But, you have to take note that when you are working there, you are under the protection of the cover , when you leave the company, you are no more under the cover. So, it is important to have your own cover and take the company cover as bonus . When there is claim, you should first claim against the company cover, for any amount exceed the maximum claim amount, you can claim the balance against your own insurance cover. Also should take note that most of the company work on group cover insurance and the insurance company will review the policy before the yearly renewal . Some of the policy come with terms that insurance company may not accept renewal for employee already have claim for critical illness in previous year, or they will charge heavy loading for premium and not accepted any further claim for the same illness.

Next question will be " I would like to have something for my family, if something happen ? But, financially I can not afford the high premium of Life insurance . "

What you can do is to go for term insurance. I agreed that there is no saving return , but, what we want is the coverage and some fund for our immediate family . I am not sure what is the premium now. The premium for my first term insurance for Rm 100,000.00 , when I am before 30 years old, is something less than Rm 400 per year and it cover for 15 years.

You may go for life insurance with saving plan when you are financially okay and do not forget to
look into the rider for critical illness ( it is normally cover for 36 illness ) , cover for critical illness will pay you the lumpsum amount once diagnose and confirm . Just take note that Insurance company will arrange to verify the report , upon confirmation, you will receive the lumpsum amount.

What I am sharing is just base on my experience and suggest you to contact your insurance agent to have better understanding of the product they offer and you may have policy product from different insurance company to make comparison , then, choose the one suite to your requirement.

Always take up insurance policy cover when you are healthy , not, when you suspect something is wrong .