Insurance with Pre-existing, and Retirement

[richard.hazlehurst]

Hi,

I've been offered a job in Singapore. The job offers health insurance which looks good for GP visits, but expensive for larger outpatient or inpatient procedures. It also states that it does not cover pre-existing conditions. Both my wife and I have some minor pre-existing conditions and think we need a supplementary policy to provide more coverage. I would love to hear if anyone has a similar experience, what your solution was, and the financial impact. I'm sure it depends on a lot of factors, but I'm trying to understand as much as possible before accepting or declining the offer. I am 52 and my wife is 49.

Also, I don't see anything like a 401K offered, so assuming company match is not a thing. I assume its best to invest into a mutual fund with a private investment firm with no pre-tax benefit?

Thanks

[PNGMK]

Medical care here is not super expensive. Unfortunately it will be hard to get coverage for pre-existing conditions on an inidividual policy so see if you can join a group policy via your work place.

401k don't exist but there is an SRS system that saves tax and may be worthing looking at and is available to expats.

https://www.iras.gov.sg/irashome/Scheme ... eme--SRS-/

[malcontent]

Most employer group plans here have rather pathetic caps on payouts. I think my employer is around $30-40k. Many in my office buy private insurance to supplement. Some private insurance plans can go up to $1-2m max, but they are not cheap - and they cannot be relied upon to cover all out of pocket expenses. There is no easy answer that I’m aware of - maybe worse comes to worse, you return to the US and get on Obamacare?

My employer offers an ESPP with an employer match (50¢ for every $1 up to 6% of salary). My employer also contributes nearly the max to my SRS, over $30k annually. These two benefits are not commonplace, however, we don’t get other perks like a car allowance and our bonuses usually suck. Every employer is a bit different.