Critical illness benefits shield plan

Hi anon,

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It sounds like you have an AIA shield plan.

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That benefit just means that in the event of hospitalization due a critical illness, your claim limit is increased by $150K. However, my recollection is that this number should be $100K. So if you confirm which insurer you have, that would help.

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It is definitely NOT a lump sum payout.

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Lump sum payouts can only come from term plans, whole life plans, multipay plans, etc.

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Thus you'll need a mix of plans to tackle the various catastrophic risks. A shield plan is not enough to tackle the costs of CI. You'll definitely need liquidity to deal with other costs as well, which a lump sum payout provides.

As the shield plan is your hospital plan, it will not provide lump sum payout for CI as those are from CI plan.

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The Critical illness benefit up to S$150k, are referring to the event where you would require cancer drug treatments but it was not in the Cancer Drug List (CDL).. Hence you have to use cash to pay for the drug, instead of Medisave.. (I hope your FA have gone through with you regarding this changes since 1 April 2023).

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Even though 95% of the cancer drug are in the CDL, there are still drugs that are not in the CDL due to not being cost-effective and etc. Yes you can choose to use those drugs in CDL, and can use Medisave to pay for them up to a certain limit..

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However if the doctor told you that there is this drug not in CDL, but is more effective or have lesser side-effects, The downside is that you have to use cash to pay for this one. Which one would you choose?

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Rather than you only have one option which is the cancer drug on CDL because you want to use Medisave.. This is where the critical illness benefit up to S$150k comes in, it provides you another option as your insurer can help you to cover up to S$150k/year if you decide to choose drug not in the CDL.

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Hope this clarifies. Feel free to ask questions.