What plans should i get for 55+ y/old parents? Esp when one of them have condition?

Hi Sharon, just my 3 cents' worth of comments here. There's 3 things you can consider.

1) For your dad's case, the most important is hospitalization plan. Because he is 55yo, hospitalization plan covering both private and government hospitals will be significantly more expensive (about 3 times) than the option which covers government hospitals. So you may want to consider this when choosing the full hospital plan coverage.

2) Next important plan to get is a personal accident plan for your mom. Because she is covered under MediShield Life, staying in B2 or C wards wouldn't be an issue. But first $1.5k to $2k of the bills aren't covered, so her accident plan should give about $2.5k coverage on medical reimbursement so that hospitalization due to accidents are covered. You'll have to consider setting aside rainy day funds for her in the event of hospitalised due to non accident related cases.

3) Thirdly, if your budget allows you can consider between getting critical illness plan for your dad or retirement plan for both your parents. The tie is here because I'm assuming your parents have no dependents (since you and your siblings have grown) and hospitalization plans will help cover treatment costs. What the critical illness plan does is to provide payout in the event of critical illnesses, but if you do retirement planning properly, it'll serve the same purpose.

This is the best in my honest opinion, what you can do for your parents with limited budget.

Get a shield plan, upgrade Eldershield, and then look at the NTUC Silver series policies, especially the Personal Accident policy. They are made for the elderly.

You want to make sure that medical costs are managed. They may not need a death payout if they don't have any more dependents and liabilities.

Also consider topping up their CPF or getting an annuity to create a lifetime stream of guaranteed income.

For your mom with Type 1 Diabetes, almost all policies would not insure her. A personal accident plan might instead. She still has Medishield Life of course.