Health/Medical Insurance

[Michael H]

Hi - My wife and I are moving to Singapore in two weeks. We are an Australian couple.
I am looking for medical insurance for her and we would like to have a baby. What type of insurance is there? Just want 'normal' insurance. I have BUPA in Australia, but can't work it out in Singapore. I am covered by my employer's corporate plan with Raffles, but she is not.
Thanks heaps

[ecureilx]

Hi - My wife and I are moving to Singapore in two weeks. We are an Australian couple.
I am looking for medical insurance for her and we would like to have a baby. What type of insurance is there? Just want 'normal' insurance. I have BUPA in Australia, but can't work it out in Singapore. I am covered by my employer's corporate plan with Raffles, but she is not.
Thanks heaps

I would suggest you look up your company offerings

I worked for companies with the following insurance benefits:

1) Strictly employee only, Outpatient Medical and limited surgery / hospitalisation

2) For Employee outpatient, surgery upto 100K per year, family covered for a whopping 70% off for the family coverage, employee paying the 30%, 70% covered by employer.

3) Insurance for employee, covered by 3 different providers, NTUC for Outpatient, AIA for hospitalisation up, and AVIVA for life time disability, upto 500K for death and 3,500 $ per month on disability, if occurs during employment, for lifetime *this employer's basic salary package wasnt' attractive but the insurance cover was tops .. (this employer has a agent who was able to source from three different agencies .. )

So .. see what your employer offers, before starting to look for add-ons

And check if the employer's current plan can include family, for a additional fee.

If you talk to any insurance agent in Singapore, they will make you feel guilty for not spending half your salary for insurance :p

PS, for baby, some of the insurance offerings are beyond scary, the way they describe the benefits .. like baby with x defect .. that can be a big turn off .. if your wife is a bit conservative !!

[Michael H]

Hi. Thanks for that. Mine is employee only, so definitely need something for her. Ill look up those organisatuons.

[ecureilx]

Hi. Thanks for that. Mine is employee only, so definitely need something for her. Ill look up those organisatuons.

Good luck !!

Just ensure your excess is as low as possible, or zero !

[JR8]

It seems pretty mean to me that your family members are not covered under your policy, given that your employment/relo assumes that they will be moving with you. But assuming they're not, then as Ecu suggests the simplest way would be to seek an option to add them on to your existing policy. If you simply can't then that is unfortunate, as to an extent you'd be 'thrown to the sharks' trying to figure it all out for yourself. Quite a distraction from the job at hand.

How about asking HR for their suggestion? After all it is them that want you to relocate, and their responsibility goes beyond just you 'the worker', and across your family unit. They should have the local knowledge of the med/insurance market.

--- Your HR is presumably paying to relo and house your wife together with you, or is she on her own in that regard too?

[the lynx]

Hi - My wife and I are moving to Singapore in two weeks. We are an Australian couple.
I am looking for medical insurance for her and we would like to have a baby. What type of insurance is there? Just want 'normal' insurance. I have BUPA in Australia, but can't work it out in Singapore. I am covered by my employer's corporate plan with Raffles, but she is not.
Thanks heaps

I don't know if your wife is already pregnant or not. If she is not, you can get well-covered insurance plan that included pregnancy but there is waiting time between 10 to 15 months before conception. That can be a good move, or a very expensive move if you and your wife accidentally put yourselves in a "shotgun" situation.

Here are some examples discussed:
http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/viewtopic.php?t=85998
http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/viewtopic.php?t=71895
http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/viewtopic.php?t=91889