What happens if your parent is unable buy in hospitalisation insurances due to past medical history of cancer when she was younger. How much should we set aside for her for the future? Thanks!!?

To be frank, I think no one can really advise an amount.

My insurance agent friend did tell me before that the highest amount he has seen so far in his life is around $600k, so I don't know if that helps. I am not too sure of the ward class, but just thought I would share this figure (Please take it with a pitch of salt though in case it's not accurate).

Your mum will be covered by medishield life regardless, which is actually not bad. So what you can do to reduce the bill size is to opt for a lower class ward, which don't worry the level of care and treatment is the same one (no compromise one), just that you have more beds in the ward. Opting for a lower class ward also means more government subsidies, which will go a long way.

You can also consider helping her boost her medisave account, as well as boosting your own medisave account (so in the event her medisave is not enough, she can tap into yours). If you have silbings, try to get them to boost their medisave account amount as well for the same reason.

For now, do also ensure that your family members and you have sufficient insurance coverage as well, be it the relevant CI or Shield plans, so as to avoid such a situation in the future.

Cheers! :)

- Jeffrey (jeffreyleezq.com)

There is really no way to know what is the amount required, as it depends largely on the stages of cancer, may varies from tens to hundreds of thousands. Usually it's not quite possible to save up for treatment cost for cancer for most people. Heard of people selling their house to pay for treatment, when they don't have insurance.... it's really sad if that happens. For now, she is still covered with Medishield Life, so have to stay in B2 or C ward, but note its not full cover.

Having said that, there are insurance policies that specifically allows cancer survivor to get coverage for cancer relapse. As an IFA, I work with 19 insurers to source for the most suitable products, something that sadly tied agents (tied to one insurance company) are unable to do.