Dad (55, smoker) has no insurance except for a basic personal accident plan. Need advice on how/what to cover him for.

Hospitalization and critical illness plans. Might have to go for a health assessment prior and premiums will definitely be heftier but better now than later.

There's also careshield life.

Hello anon,

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If your budget a year is about $3000 - $4000, get them at least a government level hospitalization insurance, with a rider. Private hospitalization coverage is already expensive at 55 and will only increase exponentially so your budget has to be prepared to follow suit. Government level hospitalization plans generally do not escalate in premiums that fast.

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The remaining budget should be used to consider the following:

1. Critical illness coverage - If he is still working to support the family alongside you, protecting his income is a high prority. Some level of coverage will be better than none, however note that the premiums for a CI plan are high especially for a smoker in their 50s. If there isn't a reasonable premium for 10 years of coverage (assuming he'll retire at 65), you can get around this by getting a renewable plan for 5 years and not renewing later, this is about the shortest duration of coverage that you can get out there. This will cover him for the next 5 years which should be just about good enough. Also, consider plans that focus on core CI such as Big 3 CI, if you find that typical CI plans covering 37 illnesses are out of your budget. There will be a fine balance between having the right amount of coverage, and a comprehensive scope of coverage. Having both will likely be costly and blow your budget. Either way, given your budget, it will definitely be a term plan.
2. Long Term Care - consider upgrading his long term care cover as well, to careshield life, and adding a supplement plan, your own medisave can be used to chip in to pay for the supplement plan.
3. Personal accident - compare his existing plan against what is available on the market and see if there are any savings to be had. There are personal accident plans that are designed for people of his age and would cover them into their 70s and 80s, which may be more relevant now.

Hope that helps!

Hi OP, you should minimally consider getting hospitalisation insurance for your dad. You can check this article for what to consider for insurance. And this link compares the different hospitalisation insurance plans that you can take a look at!

Just get a basic integrated shield plan from any of the 7 insurers, based on your budget, the government hospital coverage is good, since you have to factor in future premium increment with age.