The rise of medical costs in Malaysia plus the implementation of GST let us see the upward adjustment of premium. This makes the insured public to feel the sudden increase of insurance premium.
People who bought medical card issued by general insurance companies feel the burden of new insurance premium. People who bought medical card packaged within investment-linked policies do not feel it, although the cost of insurance is adjusted as well.
Well, this happen to my client recently. His medical card, under general insurance company, is due for renewal soon. His new premium plus GST comes to RM1053 as compared to RM800+ the previous year.
His reaction is, obviously, sad to see the increment of RM200 in his premium. For this, I have to explain his amount is actual premium plus GST. The rise in premium part is actually RM100+ or so. All insurance companies has adjusted their premium to factor in medical costs and GST.
Then he complaint his wife's investment-linked policy doesn't have to say more. For this, again, I have told him before and have to explain again the reason behind the no hike.
So he feels his premium is too burdensome for him. He wants to downgrade his coverage. He is the sole breadwinner. He has to feed a family of 8 persons. He should have the biggest coverage.
I do not agree he should reduce his coverage. I suggested hecan rearrange his payment method to monthly payment so that he can keep his coverage, and reduce his burden of forking out a big sum of money.
However, he totally doesn't want to consider monthly payment option. He feels his current monthly commitments is high enough. He only to pay in lump sum but the new amount is too high. He would rather reduce his coverage.
For me I would rather break the RM1053 into about RM90 monthly so that I can maintain the same coverage. In desperate time, paying RM90 monthly is less burdensome than paying RM1053 one off. The trade off is a little bit of interest charge. But what is more important is the coverage.
I believe many other people may actually surrender their coverage totally. So worrying. The medical costs is rising too fast. And this coincide with the newly implementation of GST has make public to feel the pressure of rising price. People is cutting down spending.
The only comforting thing is we still have Government Hospital to turn too at very affordable prices.
Folks, let's plan our insurance coverage properly.
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