AIA ACHIEVES SOLID OPERATING RESULTS DESPITE CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENT.

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PLEASE BE CAREFUL EVEN YOU ARE HOME.

We will know the importance of insurance in our life after we have watched the video clip above. For details, please click here.

YOU ARE STILL INSURED EVEN YOU DON'T BUY ANY INSURANCE PLAN.

Does the sentence above sound weird?

When a person doesn't buy insurance like medical card and personal accident, he is still insured. Why? It is because he is the insurance company. He pays his medical bills himself.

WHY SHOULD EVERY CONSUMER BUY MEDICAL CARD?

We can be hospitalized due to a critical illness and an accident. An accident can happen any time to anyone. As we all know, a private hospital is a very realistic organization. If we don't have enough cash, the doctors there will not save our life.

We can go to a government hospital. The medical bill there is very economical. However, we need to wait for a long time before we get a treatment. When we are injured seriously, do we have the time and patience to wait? If the answer is no, every consumer should have at least one medical card.

Of course, a medical card doesn't guarantee us an admission to all hospitals without a deposit in Malaysia like what I have explained previously in my post titled WILL A HOSPITAL ACCEPT OUR MEDICAL CARD AS A GUARANTEE OF ADMISSION TO THE HOSPITAL WITHOUT A DEPOSIT? (March 17, 2009). But, it at least helps us to admit to all of the panel hospitals of an insurance company without a deposit.

WILL A HOSPITAL ACCEPT OUR MEDICAL CARD AS A GUARANTEE OF ADMISSION TO THE HOSPITAL WITHOUT A DEPOSIT?

A medical card is not a credit card and therefore will not be accepted by some of the hospitals in Malaysia. The medical card is to help panel hospitals to recognize us as policyholders of an insurance company.

Sometimes we have to pay a deposit and our medical bills ourselves first even we are admitted to a panel hospital. Why? To know the reasons, please read my post titled WHAT ARE THE REASONS A POLICYHOLDER CAN'T MAKE A CLAIM FROM AN INSURANCE COMPANY? (March 25, 2009).

IS A MEDICAL CARD THE ONLY CARD WE NEED?

We can be admitted to a hospital due to a serious road accident besides a critical illness.

In the insurance market, there is no one medical card that guarantees policyholders an admission to all hospitals in Malaysia without a deposit. Hospital A is a panel hospital for insurance company X but it may not be a panel hospital for another insurance company Y. In other words, there is no one insurance company which has all the hospitals in Malaysia as its panel hospitals.

So, what are the possible solutions to encounter this situation?

We can buy more than one medical card from different insurance companies like AIA Berhad, ING Insurance Berhad, Prudential Assurance Malaysia Berhad and so on. All insurance companies have their own list of panel hospitals.

Besides that, we should bring alone several credit cards with a high card limit. Why? If all of our medical cards are not accepted by a hospital, we can still use our credit cards to settle our medical bills. After discharging from the hospital, we can claim our money from the insurance companies.

If we don't have medical card and credit card, what we can do is bring along a lot of cash. I personally think that this way is not a good solution as it is no longer safe in certain places in Malaysia if the world economy doesn't recover fast.

WHY IS IT NOT RATIONAL TO TERMINATE OUR INSURANCE PLANS WHEN THE ECONOMY DOESN'T PERFORM WELL?

When the economy is bad, unemployment rate increases. Many people are jobless. They have no income but they still need to eat. If they still can't find a new job, some of them will be forced to commit crimes like robbery, snatch and others. As a result, crime rate will increase. When crime rate increases, our safety will be threatened. We may become the next victims of robbery and snatch.

Of course, having an insurance plan doesn't reduce crime rate in Malaysia. But, it at least helps us to cover our medical bills when we are injured due to an accident, robbery and snatch.

In sum, it is not wise to terminate our insurance plans when the economy performs badly. If we really can't afford it, we can try to reduce our annual premium by reducing our coverage.