3 Truths about the Importance of Careshield Life that you may not know
Careshield Life has just been launched in Singapore on 1st October 2020. As you are approaching your 30’s, or have already approached 30 years old, are you aware of what is Careshield Life about and how it can benefit you?
Careshield Life is a national long term care insurance scheme that offers payout for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents in Singapore upon severe disability.
Some questions that may ponder you are is it really necessary to have Careshield LIfe with the additional premiums paid by medisave? Do we really need it considering we are healthy or young still?
Well, the answer is yes. Here are 3 important truths that are commonly overlooked about Long Term Care (LTC) / Severe Disability insurance that we should know about.
1) Life Span VS Health Span
While it is common knowledge that average life expectancy has been increasing, not many people know that the health expectancy, which is the number of years in good health, hasn’t been catching up.
A person born in 1980s, would live an estimated 12% of his life in ill health, which approximates to about 10 years.
Hence, it is increasingly vital, for LTC plans such as Careshield life, to cover us for longer term and help supplement the term, whole life and critical illness plans we take up.
If you were to check your existing policies, the coverage for disability under term or whole life plans is called Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) which is different from severe disability and its coverage is usually till age 65 or 70. So what happens to your disability coverage after that? That’s when LTC plans like careshield life kicks in.
2) Severe Disability is Surprisingly Common
Not to be confused with Total and Permanent Disability which is permanent disability, severe disability is where a person cannot perform at least 3 out of 6 Activities of Daily living (ADL) which can be temporary.
Many a times we don’t pay attention to severe disability as we feel that it will most probably not happen to us. However, statistics show otherwise.
1 in 2 healthy Singaporeans aged 65 could become severely disabled later in their lifetime. It means between you and your spouse, or you and your friend, it’s one of you.
Thus, you need to be aware how much careshield life covers you and whether it is sufficient to cover your monthly expenses in the future. If not, what alternatives are there to help cover that shortfall?
3) Long Term Care: Increasingly for the young
Top causes of severe disability such as heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke are no longer old age dependent, and are increasingly affecting younger people in their 30s and 40s.
In fact, even causes that are normally associated with old age, are increasingly affecting younger people too. National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) reported a 125% increase in Young Onset Dementia (YOD) this year compared to last year.
Hence, it is important for us to prepare early, by looking through what options you have currently.
With these 3 truths, you should act upon them and take action to understand what you have right now, and how careshield life complement your portfolio and how you can get the best out of it.
