IS A MEDICAL CARD REALLY ALL WE NEED?

Last year, I met a friend. I helped him to do a review on his protection plans. He has only bought a medical card. He said that all he needed was just a medical card. Other insurance plans like personal accident and 36 critical illnesses were not useful to him as he was still very young.

I think it is wrong to say so as we all don't have the ability to predict when a critical illness will strike. If we have the ability to predict our future, I think all of the consumers in the world don't need to buy any insurance plan. They only have to buy insurance several days before an unfortunate event happens to them. Besides that, as we all know, many people nowadays die young due to critical illnesses such as cancer and heart attack. Those people always think that they are very healthy. In fact, I myself also think like that. But, I will never know how my state of health is until I go for a check-up.

The importance of a personal accident plan was explained previously in my post titled WHY IS A PERSONAL ACCIDENT (PA) PLAN VERY IMPORTANT IN OUR LIFE? (January 9, 2009). Then, why do we need to have a 36 critical illnesses (CI) plan?

If a man who has only bought a medical card in his entire life has been hospitalized due to a cancer, his medical bill will be paid by insurance company. However, a more serious problem is waiting for him after he is discharged from the hospital. Normally, a person needs to rest about one year to fully recover from a critical illness. During this one year, he may lose his source of income due to his inability of working. In addition, he has to take some supplements like vitamins and other special food in order to make his immune system stronger. A strong immune system is very important if he intends to recover faster.

By having CI, he doesn't have to worry about the mounting medical costs and he can also concentrate on getting well. As we all know, once a person suffers from a critical illness, the same and other critical illnesses may strike again in the near future. Fortunately, he still has CI as his backup funds if his medical bill is not enough to be paid by his medical card. So, he may not need to pay his medical bill by his life savings which are very important when he retires in the future.

According to a survey by AIA Berhad in the year of 2006, 39 % of Malaysians polled said that they could last no longer than 12 weeks (around 3 months) financially without any form of income protection if they faced a sudden loss of income due to a critical illness.

So, are you one of them?