Raffles Shield – New kid on the block

RafflesHealthinsurance(RHI) , a fully owned subsidiary of Raffles MedicalGroup, announced the launch of Raffles Shield, making it the seventh player to enter the industry. Raffles Shield is the first Integrated Shield Plan (IP) developed in collaboration with Raffles MedicalGroup and is a Medisave- approved IP providing coverage for hospital and surgical expenses.

Raffles Health insurance has observed that many who purchase IPs are keen to have private hospital coverage without overly expensive premiums, and would like to have more flexibility to manage their premiums. In response to this, Raffles Shield offers two attractive options

1. the Raffles Hospital Option
– typically, one has to decide between choosing a private hospital plan vs a government restuructered hospital plan and the decision basically comes down to affordability of premium.

With Raffles Shield howver, it offers an hybrid option where a government restructured hospital plan is combined with a Raffles Hospital option at an afforable premium without any pro-ration being applied.

2. the High Deductible Option (HDO)
– whereby instead of the usual S$1.5k-3.5k annual deductible, one can opt for a S$10k annual deductible in exchange for a lower premium.

This works especially well in situations where the insured is aleady covered by existing employee benefits and thereby avoids duplication of cover and paying excessive premium at the same time. When you feel the need to have a smaller deductible, just remove the HDO anytime during policy renewal without any medical underwriting!

Typically, hospital type insurance plans have the strictest level of underwriting whereby if one has a pre-existing medical condition, a health exclusion can be commonly expected.

Hence, another unique feature of the plan is that it might be able to offer coverage to individuals with certain pre-existing conditions and work with them through the Raffles Care Management Program to improve their overall well being.

To find out more about the plan and seek independant advise on which plan option suits your needs best, just get in touch wth me at gilbert@avallis.com