Last Updated on 23, March 2014
Many employees are covered under their employer's group insurance. If that is the case, many employees do not feel the need to get additional insurance for themselves.
The policyowner of the group insurance is the employer. The employee is merely the life assured with no legal rights to the contract. The master contract can be terminated either by the employer or by the insurer. Moreover, the employee loses the coverage once he or she leaves the group such as resignation, retirement or retrenchment. This argument applies similarly to group insurance provided by the military. Upon lost of cover, the employee could only purchase their own own insurance. However, many insurance policies excludes pre-existing illnesses - including those that are unknown.
The government is trying to encourage portable insurance for employees but this has not been met with much success. Currently the most "portable" insurance scheme is to pay the employee an extra 1 percentage points to their medisave but the employee still have to source for a medisave-approved integrated shield plan.
See also a related link: Fineprints for Aviva SAF Insurance for NSmen
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