We’re living in the era where the world keeps getting smaller and smaller, traveling is now ever more accessible thanks to the proliferation of airlines such as Air Asia where “now everyone can fly” (which is a problem in itself, but that’s another post in another day).
taken just as the plane was landing at tullamarine airport, Melbourne
This year alone I’ve been to Singapore, Melbourne, and Thailand (Krabi and Bangkok) twice each. In total I’ve spent close to 30 days out of the country so far, and we haven’t reached the end of the year yet.
Which got me thinking, what if I ever fall sick during one of the trips overseas? This was especially a concern when I bought my tickets to Melbourne a month prior to the trip when the H1N1 flu is rather rampant in that part of the world but hasn’t quite started in Malaysia yet.
health check at Prudential event in KL
Which got me thinking about the travel insurance airlines usually try to sell whenever we purchase tickets. A quick check AirAsia’s GoInsure plan shows that the policy pays out RM 50,000 for accidental death, but it doesn’t seems like any illness or treatment is covered… hmm.
Of course, there are other travel insurance you can buy that gives quite a bit more protection than that, but I am usually only concern about medical coverage while traveling.
So when I was listening to the brief given by Prudential regarding PruHealth, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that the policy actually covers medical treatment overseas with benefits paid according to the cost of treatment that would be reasonably charged by a hospital in Malaysia. If I’m paying my coverage in Ringgit Malaysia, I think that is a very fair return.
Nice to know that I am holding a policy with them, especially looking at the amount of traveling I make. 
Earlier this year, I had a tragic accident happened to me. Basically it was this extremely uncooperative lamp post that just wouldn’t stay still and decided to meet my car squarely face to face. You can read about it here.
The outcome wasn’t pretty, but thank goodness nothing major came out if it. I walked away basically unscathed, but the car, even with the engine located at the back, suffered quite a hit, as you can witness from the photo below.
one should always take a photo for memory sake (suggested by the cop)
Well, since I bought insurance with full coverage for the car, I naturally did a claim and the car is fully fixed now. However, I did lose the NCB (no claim bonus). A decent discount that I had enjoy over the years being a very cautious and careful driver.
accidents happen, FOL
Just to show that accidents do happen and is something that we can’t avoid. This year alone Horng had a couple accidents, Kim’s car was hit once, Yee Hou had his car flipped avoiding a cat, and most recently, Joshua’s car was banged pretty badly by some another car. Even Tim too joined the club.
With car insurance, it works pretty straight forward. If you did not do a claim (not everyone above did), you get a discount for the following year. If you do, the NCB goes to zilch. That, to me, is pretty fair.
Which makes me wonder why no one had ever thought of this very same scheme for health insurance, until I heard about it during the Prudential Health Challenge I attended last weekend (will write about that soon).
It is pretty straight forward, if you don’t claim in the first year, you get a bonus for the next. Which makes perfect sense to me, stay healthy, get rewarded.
Now that wasn’t rocket science. I think I’m going to get my agent to talk over about this plan when I see him again next. I do hold a Prudential health insurance policy. Check out PruHealth website for more.
