Insurance tip: choose a premium or benefit?
JAKARTA. As a protection product, insurance cannot be included in the investment basket. However, in fact, not a few, you, still associate insurance as a form of investment. As a result, when asked to deposit premium money and premium money then forfeited because there were no claims, the owner of the insurance policy felt a loss.
Could it be, you are among those who still think like this?
As if answering the reality in that society, insurance companies are spinning their brains. As a result, in recent years there have been more and more insurance products that provide the lure of returning the premiums paid by policyholders.
One product that has just launched on the market is the Maestro Hospital Plan. This is a health insurance under PT AXA Financial Indonesia. The premium that must be paid is from Rp. 95,000 to Rp. 740,000 per month.
Some of the benefits offered are reimbursement of inpatient costs of up to Rp. 1 million per day, daily costs for intensive care unit rooms of up to Rp. 2 million per day and surgical costs of up to Rp. 10 million per surgery. There is also reimbursement of recovery costs for hospital care up to Rp. 2 million and grief compensation of up to Rp. 10 million for the risk of death.
AXA requires policyholders to pay a premium for seven years to get a benefit of coverage for 10 years. At the end of this 10th year, AXA will pay 70% of the total premium paid even though during the coverage period there is a claim submission. “There are no conditions that must be met by the customer to get a refund of the premium,” said Elsye Chatarina, Sales Director of AXA Financial.
OneShildt Financial Planning Senior Partner Director Budi Raharjo believes that the positive value of insurance that returns premiums is that it can stimulate families to buy protection products. On the other hand, the return of premium means that the customer saves the amount of money that should have been paid for the premium. “This added value makes insurance with premium refunds more attractive than those that don’t,” said Budi.
With the same benefit benchmark, insurance that provides premium returns generally charges a larger premium than those that do not return premiums. Because, according to Budi, the insurance risk premium has entered the risk pool. This premium is not possible to reissue except in Islamic insurance. This is also distributed according to the portion between the policy holder and the insurance company.
Benefits are a major consideration
The offer of benefits plus returns from this type of insurance at first glance looks tempting. However, financial planners try to provide a broader picture so that you also understand the shortcomings of this product. The goal is that you can maximize the “benefits” of this product.
Financial planner from Fin-Ally Financial Consulting Kurnia Sukmanagara said the benefits offered should be the main consideration for families. No exception in buying insurance that returns premiums.
Kurnia explained, the basic program of health insurance is In-Patient or inpatient benefits. These benefits include general practitioner services, specialist doctors, medicine, physiotherapy and diagnostics. It also includes surgery, from minor to complex surgery, recovery after hospitalization, ambulance, outpatient compensation for accidents, and compensation for death. “I see products that return premiums do not have the basic benefits that health insurance generally has,” said Kurnia.
What Kurnia said refers to the same premium. KONTAN then tried to compare the Maestro Hospital Plan with other insurers that do not provide premiums, namely Allisya Care from PT Asuransi Allianz Life Indonesia. With approximately the same premium, namely the Maestro Plan Saphire IDR 4,815,400 per year and Allisya Plan H IDR 4,797,000 per year, the benefits offered are quite different. This can be seen from the variety of benefits offered and the maximum limit for reimbursement of costs incurred.
Take for example, the reimbursement of the Saphire Maestro Plan room costs is IDR 1 million per day for a maximum of 90 days per year. Meanwhile, Allisya Plan H also covers room fees of Rp. 1 million per day, but for a maximum of 180 days per year. Other differences, such as the cost of doctor visits and specialist treatment, are only in Allisya Plan H, while the Maestro Plan Saphire does not provide this benefit.
Indeed, what is being compared to KONTAN cannot represent insurance that returns premiums with pure health insurance which number in the hundreds on the market. However, at least this can be a motivation for you to be more observant in comparing the offal of the insurance you are going to buy.
Who needs that?
Apart from the benefits offered, Budi added that another thing that the family should consider is the reputation of the insurance company. This is to see the professionalism and competence of the company in responding to the claims of policyholders.
Do not forget, also look at the contents of the family pockets. Budi said, cheap does not necessarily mean the best, but too expensive can also be inefficient. “So, balance the needs between the need for insurance protection, services, claims, and premiums to find the most suitable product for the family,” Budi explained.
If you and your family have gone through all the variables, it’s time to make choices. Want insurance with premium returns or pure health insurance.
In Budi’s opinion, the most suitable to take insurance that returns premiums are policyholders who are still unfamiliar with insurance and are just starting to insure. Meanwhile, Kurnia said that a suitable profile with insurance such as Maestro owned by AXA is those who are willing to pay insurance premiums with a period less than the period of enjoying insurance benefits.
After getting an idea, which would you choose?
Source: Weekly Cash Pockets Rubric August 13-19 2012 Edition.