It’s very important to get insurance for our children in Singapore, with the rising medical costs. Every Singapore citizen will have Medishield Life, which is a basic plan administered by the CPF Board. It is paid for by our Medisave accounts. Medishield Life fully covers subsidised treatments in public hospitals, and is limited to B2/C wards.
However, many parents choose to do some upgrade to their children’s Medishield Life plans for various reasons, for example (and not limited to):
- Convenience: The coverage can extend to private hospitals, so parents do not have to wait hours at public hospitals for treatment.
- Comfort: Some parents may prefer a more private A/B1 ward, with 1 or at most 2 patients within the room.
- Extended reimbursement: Some upgraded plans pay for pre- or post-hospitalisation treatment, which may prove to be more cost-efficient.
- and more…
Currently, NTUC Income is offering complimentary one-year coverage for Singaporean babies born between 2016 and 2019. Baby J was born at the start of this year, so he qualifies! And YES, even if you’ve already bought an Incomeshield plan for your child, you’ll still get a one-year complimentary coverage. We actually bought the plan for Baby J before we signed up for the free coverage.
So we finally received this from NTUC Income!
How to Sign Up For Free One-Year Insurance Coverage For Your Child?
First, make sure your child qualifies. This is only offered to babies who hold the Singapore citizenship and are born between 2016 and 2019.
Next, do note that this only applies to NTUC Incomeshield plans. So if you already have a similar Shield plan from other providers for your child, this may not apply to you. (There’s of course the option to switch over, but there are many considerations to be made. So make sure you consult a trusted and qualified insurance agent about this.)
Ok, so this complimentary insurance coverage is part of the NTUC Good Start Bundle initiative, which I mentioned in this post. You may also *register on their website.
*It’s important to note that registration alone is not enough; you’ll need to attend an event which I’ll talk about in this post too.
Ok, I’ve Signed Up. Now What?
Now, look out for the Embracing PArenthood event invitation organised by PA. In the linked post, I mentioned to look out for the NTUC Good Start Bundle booth, because this is where they will assign a package to you. In this special package, lies a voucher containing the complimentary one-year insurance coverage!
This is the voucher!
So do NOT overlook the package given by NTUC Good Starts Bundle booth! I actually did and almost lost my voucher, because I threw it away. I had to dig the overnight trash to retrieve it! Thankfully there wasn’t any gross trash near it.
You may ask, how did I end up throwing away the voucher? Well, the voucher was stapled onto the booklet informing us about signing up for the Incomeshield insurance. Since we had already signed up for the insurance, I thought I could discard the entire booklet. I did not realise the voucher was essential to redeem a free one-year coverage. Silly me!
Do note that you have to attend the Embracing PArenthood event to be able to use the voucher. You are allowed to attend a separate session if you are unable to make it for the one they arranged for you.
The Last Bit
With the physical voucher, you may pass it to your trusty insurance agent or liaise with NTUC Income directly to redeem your complimentary one-year coverage! 🙂 I passed my voucher to my super trustworthy agent (who is also a relative), who then helped me claim my free coverage. Everything was settled within one month of submission!
And because we had already paid for the first year of insurance coverage, the voucher allowed us to redeem it for the next year of renewal.
So ta-da!
Some Caveats About the Complimentary Insurance Coverage
There are some fine print regarding the complimentary coverage:
- Only the premium for the additional private insurance coverage is complimentary.
- The basic premium for Medishield Life is not covered.
- If you added riders to your Incomeshield plan, they will not be covered by the voucher as well.
Well, according to my insurance agent, I did end up saving about $183! So yeah, who’s complaining? 🙂
Hope this post has been useful for you on redeeming your free one-year insurance coverage. Do feel free to share with us your experience in the process of doing so!
The Embracing PArenthood Event @ Bishan CC | Our Little Casa
[…] event, at least for me, is the NTUC Good Start Bundle promotion. I will talk more about this in a separate post, as it is deemed important enough for me to do so. (There’s a complimentary one-year […]