NTUC HospitalCare Plan & DBS COVID-19 Hospital Cash Insurance!

Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread and confirmed cases in Singapore have already exceeded 100. As of this time of writing, 6 are in serious condition.

These are two hospital cash insurance plans to take on to insure yourself.

Especially useful if you are self employed (adviser, agent, tutor, business owner, freelancer...) because each day hospitalised is a loss of income.

What if you are quarantined because of COVID-19

This is a little bit on quarantine in Singapore for COVID-19

An individual who has, or is suspected to have, an infectious disease is quarantined or isolated to limit the spread of communicable disease in the community.

The Quarantine Order Allowance Scheme was set up to mitigate financial impact for those who have been served quarantine orders under the Infectious Diseases Act.

Claims of S$100 a day can be made by people who are self-employed and by employers for their employees.

Source: Today

In the source above is a story of a private tutor who is impacted as a self-employed. Thankfully, only quarantined.

But if you (or anyone) is hospitalised, the next two plans will help a long way.

DBS COVID-19 Hospital Cash Insurance

This is a complimentary coverage by DBS. Yes FREE!

Some key parts from DBS on the plan qualification:

The COVID-19 Hospital Cash policy is a 30-day free coverage that provides a daily cash benefit for hospital confinement and a lump sum payout for ICU confinement in relation to the virus.

This complimentary 30-day policy is designed exclusively for DBS/POSB customers, their partner and dependent child(ren), who fulfill the following criteria on the commencement date of the insurance:

• Singapore Residents;
• have not been to Mainland China in the last 14 days; and
• do not have any fever, flu-like or respiratory symptom(s) (e.g. cough, runny nose and sore throat).

To read further: DBS COVID-19

I applied for myself and it took 1min only.

Do note that coverage is ONLY for 30days and terminates there after.

Hence, do also consider adding on the NTUC HospitalCare plan.

NTUC HospitalCare Plan

For a limited time only, NTUC INCOME is waiving the 30-day waiting period for claims.

In my opinion, because the incubation period of COVID-19 can be up to 14days, having this waiting period waived off is useful.

This waiver applies to sign ups before 24 march 2020 or till NTUC Income's discretion.

For each 24-hr of hospitalisation, cash compensation applies.

ICU has a triple coverage amount and above is the benefits table. 

Above is a quick snapshot of the policy wordings. 

Main exclusion is on pre-existing conditions just like any hospital cash plan.

If you are keen, do drop me an email to josh.tan@promiseland.com.sg

Premiums: Can be less than $1/day

Premium depends on your age and your preferred plan.

You can do yearly or monthly premium mode also.

At my current age, plan 3 is $14.45/month.

There may be other hospital cash plans but just comparing to MSIG Hospital cash plus (silver plan), it is competitive.

For find out MSIG CASH PLUS plan, click here.

What can NTUC HospitalCare plan cover

As seen below in this table by Channel News Asia, the treatment period can be a week, two or even more. Severity depends...

Source: CNA recovered patients

For severe cases of the disease, COVID-19 is known to cause pneumonia which requires days of hospitalisation. Possibly even ICU. 

That's where the plan compensates to you.

In any case, the NTUC HospitalCare plan actually helps you cover for ANY hospitalisation (that is not pre-existing or other excluded situations)

If you have a 5% co-payment from your integrated shield plan, this complements it well.

Conclusion

I've never used a hospital cash plan before. Only my PA plan has hospital cash portion.

But now with COVID-19, there is certainly an extra reason to do so.

That is why I applied for myself and I'd would recommend to consider both plans mentioned in the post.

As we know, SG government will be footing the hospital bill for COVID-19.

However, loss of income is a separate concern and can be covered with these 2 plans.

If you are keen, do drop me an email to josh.tan@promiseland.com.sg