We know how important it is to have a good health insurance plan, but we can also be tempted to go for cheaper ones to cut down on premiums. Instead of skimping on the essentials, though, find out how you can optimise your benefits and premiums so you can get the most out of your health insurance plan. The team at UEX share four tips to help you get the best bang for your buck.
#1 Opt for health coverage that includes only public hospitals
By default, most health insurance plans include private hospitals in their coverage. In Singapore, public hospitals also provide excellent services with high-quality facilities. So if you choose to only include public hospitals in your coverage, you can lower your premium, while still getting good-quality healthcare. To better understand the difference between private or public hospitals in Singapore, find out more here.
UEX has a customisation tool that allows you to include or exclude private and public hospital coverage with their partner insurance providers:
- APRIL Singapore (Under “Inpatient Network Providers”: “Specified inpatient providers” for public and “Standard” for private)
- AXA (Under “Hospital Type”)
You can get direct billing by getting a letter of guarantee from your insurer.
#2 Increase your deductibles
Adding deductibles to your policy is another way to reduce your health insurance premium. A deductible is the amount you have to pay up front, either annually or per illness, with your insurer covering the rest. The higher the deductible, the lower the premium will be. Of course, if you want to include deductibles, you’ll need the means to pay up right away.
UEX has a tool for this, too – in this case, a personalisation tool to find out the effect of adding deductibles to premiums:
- APRIL Singapore (Under “Hospital and Surgery Deductible” and “Outpatient Co-pay”)
- AXA (Under “Annual Deductibles & Co-pay” for Base Plan 4 and 5)
#3 Top-up insurance from your employer
When working in Singapore, some companies provide their employees with health insurance. This is often limited and usually not sufficient on its own.
Instead of buying a new health insurance plan for better coverage, you can add supplements to your current plan (commonly known as top-ups). A top-up is much cheaper than buying an entirely new plan. You could also further customise your plan, such as opting for hospitalisation but limited outpatient treatment.
#4 Opt for local coverage plus travel insurance
If you (or your family members) don’t travel often, consider getting local coverage instead and only buy travel insurance when you go on a trip. This allows you to reduce your annual health insurance premium. What’s more, some local plans (such as those from UEX) already include some coverage for emergency repatriation or evacuation when travelling outside Singapore.
UEX has two options for travel insurance: per trip basis or one-year coverage. Not only do they cover urgent medical expenses, they include non-urgent consultations outside Singapore. In addition, they also cover delays, lost luggage and credit card theft.
Need some help?
UEX is an online health insurance platform that offers customisable health coverage. Everything is paperless and done digitally, even underwriting. Their advisers are on hand to answer questions and help individuals, families and companies optimise their insurance plans according to their needs and budget.
Written in collaboration with:
UEX Global
3158 3677 | hello@uexglobal.com | uexglobal.com
Read more in our Health and Fitness section:
Does insurance cover alternative medicine?
Best hospitals for kids – and mums
Lindsay Yap
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