The economic slowdown has claimed many victims. Months ago, we read about these stories in the papers; workers being retrenched, people losing their life savings in the stock market, restaurants closing down because of poor business etc...
Back then, these were mere stories, we simply shrugged our shoulders, shake our heads, maybe even sigh a little, but life goes on...
Now the stories have changed. No longer are these stories we read in the papers. Now the "victims" may be our loved ones, our friends, our colleagues etc. Reality has finally sunk in.
What is worse during this difficult period, is when we, or our family member falls ill. We may be driven to desperation, huge hospital bills to pay, limited income, even the threat of losing our jobs.
In 1997, an estimated 12% (370,000) of Singapore's population (3.1m) were hospitalised, spending an astounding amount of about $550m on hospitalisation expenses alone. The economic downturn has brought about more worries and stress for the people, and not surprisingly, the number of hospitalisations in 1998 is expected to increase further.
NTUC Income receives an average of 1000 claims for hospitalisation per month and an estimated amount of $1m is paid out every month for these claims. Many of our policyholders are glad that they have bought an hospital insurance policy from Income, as it has help them tide over their financial difficulties.
One such policyholder is Mr Lau (not his real name). Mr Lau is a hawker at a coffee shop in Hougang. When his daughter was born in 1995, he was advised by his friends that an insurance policy covering his family for hospitalisation would be appropriate, since he does not have much money in his Medisave account, and also the medical costs in Singapore is expected to rise over years. Mr Lau the decided to buy the Family policy from Income, covering his spouse, his baby and his retired parents at a modest sum of $43 per month.
The importance of being covered did not dawn on Mr Lau until his father was found to have a lump in his liver in August this year and incurred a total of $12,000 in medical expenses for 2 weeks' stay in SGH to remove the lump. Mr Lau was very worried over the payment for these expenses, as he does not have much Medisave savings. Also, his was already under a lot of stress as his earnings have dipped significantly over the last few months.
Fortunately for Mr Lau, Income helped to defray most of these expenses under his Family policy. Now Mr Lau can have a peace of mind and concentrate on his small business at the coffee shop.
During this difficult period, insurance coverage might be your most important financial source for the unexpected mishap.
Email this page
Print this page
