7 Things That The Best Medical Cards in Malaysia Have
Understanding The Best Medical Cards in Malaysia
Buying a medical card is hard. Especially with all the noise from all these people who just want you to buy something from them. That is why we decided to not only help you FIND the best medical card for YOU, but we also want to help you UNDERSTAND what to look for in a medical card.
So if that is okay for you, let’s get started
To make it easier for you, we’ve created a table of content:
- Why do you even need a medical card
- The 4 best medical cards in malaysia
- Criteria 1: Hospital Room and Board
- Criteria 2: Room and Board for Intensive Care Unit
- Criteria 3: Daily Guardian Benefits
- Criteria 4: Annual Limit
- Criteria 5: Pre-Hospitalisation Consultation and Tests
- Criteria 6: Post Hospitalisation Treatment
- Criteria 7: Home Nursing Care
- What now
- Learn More About Allianz MediSafe Infinite+
Why do you even need a medical card
Since Malaysia does not have the most extensive health care covered by the government (unlike most western countries), we are required to take care of our own medical expenses. In extreme cases, these expenses are RM100,000+ and can cause some serious stress on a family.
However, there is another option, and that option is to get insurance. In other words, it would be to get a medical card. Like it or not, a medical card can either be the reason you are constantly worried in the future, or the reason why you will never worry about the what ifs.
Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as buying a medical card, or worse, buying the cheapest medical card. You see, every single insurance company offers a bunch of different medical cards and each of those medical cards give you different benefits.
Although we cannot cover every single benefit, here are the most common benefits that you should consider when deciding what medical card to get. We have also compared the top 4 medical cards in each of these criteria for you to have an idea as to what you can get.
The Top 4 Best Medical Cards in Malaysia
Before we go into what to look for in determining the best medical insurance in malaysia, let’s be clear on what the top 4 options are for most people (which doesn’t mean it will be the best for you).
The top 4, in alphabetical order are:
- AIA – A Plus Med + with the A Plus Med Booster
- Allianz – Medi Safe Infinite Plus
- Great Eastern – Smart Medic Xtra 99+ with other riders
- Prudential – PruValue Med
These 4 medical cards would most likely be ideal for the average person who is young and healthy.
But what makes these the top 4 medical cards, let’s get started.
Criteria 1 for Best Medical Card in Malaysia – Hospital Room and Board
If you or a loved one is admitted to the hospital, the hospital room and board will be used to pay for your accommodation. There are two main things to consider when selecting hospital room & board. The first one is how much it will cover you for (which ultimately allows to pay for a type of room (shared with 8 others or a private suite) and how many days it will cover you for.
How much do different hospital room and boards cost
It can be as low as RM 60 per night (if you are okay sharing the room with 3 other people) to as high as RM 900 per night (if you are staying in a suite).
Here’s an idea of what’s available:
The best hospital room and board rates offered by the top 4 medical insurance companies
When it comes to hospital room and board allocation, the best rates are:
- Prudential hospital room and board will give you up to RM600 a day for up to 150 days within a policy year
- Allianz hospital room and board will give you up to RM250 a day for up to 150 days for each disability for your lifetime. This means that if you were unlucky and had different reasons to need a hospital’s room and board within a year, you can.
- AIA hospital room and board will give you up to RM500 a day for up to 120 days within a policy year
- Great Eastern hospital room and board will give you up to RM400 a day for up to 180 days within a policy year
Criteria 2 for Best Medical Card in Malaysia – Room and Board for Intensive Care Unit
If you or a loved one needs intensive treatment (for serious diseases or injuries), you will be placed in the intensive care unit and will be constantly monitored and supported by a specialised team. Because you are in constant need of support and care during this time, intensive care units (also known as ICUs) tend to be more expensive than the normal room and board.
That said, you want to make sure you have a policy that will cover the duration you are in the intensive care unit, as well as the costs of being in the ICU as well.
If however, your need to be in the intensive care unit is over, but you still need to stay in the hospital, you will start using your hospital room and board and not your ICU days.
How much do different room and boards for ICU cost
ICU costs is something we’re still searching for since the cost is kept in the dark. If you know anyone with any experience in an ICU and had to pay for it themselves, please help share the information with us so we can all be more aware.
The best ICU room and board rates offered by insurance companies
When it comes to ICU room and board allocation, the best options are:
- Great Eastern will offer to pay for your whole ICU room and board for up to 180 days within a policy year
- Allianz will offer to pay for your whole intensive care unit room and board for up to 150 days within a policy year
- AIA will also offer to pay for your whole intensive care unit room and board but up to 120 days within a policy
- Prudential will offer to pay for your whole room and board for the intensive care unit but only up to 90 days
Criteria 3 for Best Medical Card in Malaysia – Daily Guardian Benefits
If you or a loved one gets admitted to the hospital, a family member or a friend will be able to get reimbursed a certain amount of money for food and accommodation to accompany the person who got admitted to the hospital. This will make accommodating you (or your loved one) much easier as some of their expenses will be covered.
How much and how long does each insurance company offer for daily guardian benefits
- AIA will cover up to RM 280 a day for up to 120 days within a policy year for daily guardian benefits
- Great Eastern will cover up to RM 200 a day for up to 180 days within a policy year for daily guardian benefits
- Allianz will offer you up to RM250 per day for up to 150 days for each disability during that person’s life.
- and Prudential will not provide any daily guardian benefits
Criteria 4 for Best Medical Card in Malaysia – Annual Limit
The annual limit is something that you have to be very aware of. Even if you were to qualify for some sort of payout or coverage, the insurance company can deny you if you have surpassed the medical card’s annual limit.
That said, here are the annual limits for each of these medical cards.
The annual limits for the offered by the insurance companies
- Prudential comes out as number one as it has no limits
- Great Eastern’s highest annual limit is RM 2,000,000
- Allianz’s MediSafe Infinite Plus’ highest annual limit is RM 2,500,000
- AIA’s highest annual limit is RM 1,500,000
You may be thinking that this is really high, and that you will never need that much. We hope that you never will need to use it ever (because you’re always healthy), but if we’re talking about the rest of your life, we don’t know what will happen to the cost of medical insurance in Malaysia. Though the trend has been that it has been going up significantly.
Criteria 5 for Best Medical Card in Malaysia – Pre-hospitalisation consultation and tests
This benefit allows you or a loved one to go around and get different consultations and tests from different professionals before you commit to any of the doctor’s recommendations.
So long as the consultations and tests are related to the same illness of what you end up getting hospitalised for and are within the time period that the medical card gives, you will be covered.
For example, if you start noticing some sort of pain in your foot and go to your first doctor and find out that there is something wrong that requires surgery (which would be covered by your medical card), you will have a set amount of time to get second or third opinions on how you can treat the issue. So long as you get admitted to a hospital before your consultation time is up, your medical card will cover you for all the different visits.
How long does each insurance company give for pre-hospitalisation consultation and tests
- Allianz will give up to 90 days for pre-hospitalisation consultation and tests
- AAI, Great Eastern and Prudential all give up to 60 days for pre-hospitalisation consultation and tests
Criteria 6 for Best Medical Card in Malaysia – Post-hospitalisation Treatment
In some cases, you would still need to go back to the hospital for either treatment of consultation after your initial treatment. These expenses can be claimed under the post-hospitalisation treatment so long as the reason you are going back is still related to your initial illness that required you to go to the hospital in the first place.
How long does each insurance company give for post-hospitalisation treatment
- Great Eastern leads this one by offering up to 180 days for post hospitalisation treatment
- AIA offers 120 days for post hospitalisation treatment
- Prudential offers 90 days for post hospitalisation treatment
- Allianz offers 90 days for post hospitalisation treatment
Criteria 7 for Best Medical Card in Malaysia – Home nursing care
If you or a loved one requires a nursing home or home care due to some disability / condition, your policy may cover you to be admitted to it up to a certain amount of days.
Although the home nursing care will not last for long, this benefit is meant to give your family a chance to arrange for longer term options, whether that is having someone stay home to take care of the loved one, or to find someone who can take care of he loved one.
How much and how long does each insurance company offer for home nursing care
- Prudential will offer to pay as much as it costs for up to 180 days (ie there is no limit with Prudential home nursing care)
- Allianz will pay as much as it costs for up to 180 days for home nursing care
- AIA will pay up to RM 10,000 for up to 180 days
- Great Eastern will not pay for any home nursing care
What now?
Now that you have a a general overview of some of the most important benefits with medical cards, you can see how complicated it can be. After all, none of the most popular medical cards comes out ahead in every aspect. Moreover, this is by no means an extensive list and there are many terms and conditions that would really matter when you are choosing a medical card.
That said, if you would like to get some advice on your medical card needs, or if you already have a card and are not sure if you’re fully covered, let us know and we’ll put you in contact with a few people we trust for our own needs.
Or if you want to dig deeper into one of these companies, keep on going!
Allianz Medical Card: Allianz medisafe infinite+
Allianz has upgraded their medisafe infinite+ medical card to become one of the best medical cards available to people. Before we get into what makes this Allianz medical card one of the best medical cards in Malaysia, you need to be aware that it is a rider for their investment linked plan: Powerlink.
To make it easier for you, we’ve created a quick navigation for Allianz MediSafe Infinite Plus:
- Everything You Need To Know About Allianz MediSafe Infinite+
- What makes Allianz Medisafe Infinite+ Unique
- Get Personal Support For Allianz MediSafe Infinite+
Everything You Need To Know About Allianz MediSafe Infinite+
Annual Limit and Room & Board
Allianz Medisafe Infinite Plus now offers you up to RM2,500,000 as an annual limit. This is more than what you will need today and will still be reliable for you in 20 years even with the average cost for cancer projecting to be RM121,000 – RM2,000,000.
Back To Beginning of Allianz MediSafe Infinite+
What makes Allianz Medisafe Infinite+ Unique
What makes Allianz Medisafe Infinite+ unique is 5 main things: deductibles, no claim refunds, new cancer treatment options, the ability to customise your plan and allows for global expert medical opinion. Let’s go into each one in depth
Allianz Medisafe Infinite+ Allows Deductibles:
What if you could get even better coverage with a cheaper monthly premium? Well with Allianz, you can. How you would do this is by getting an insurance deductible.
An insurance deductible is an amount that the policyholder will need to pay before utilizing their medical card. You will have the flexibility to choose from RM5,000, RM10,000 or RM30,000 deductibles levels with Retirement Option at age 60.
To fully illustrate how deductibles can benefit you let’s look at the following scenarios:
Ann is a healthy 30 year old female that does not smoke and currently working as an external auditor with one of the Big 4 firms. She decides to get a Plan 300 and a coverage up to 80 years old.
Scenario 1 – zero deductible:
She decides to choose the 0 deductible option. Her annual premium will be RM3,360.
Scenario 2 – RM10,000 deductible:
She decides to choose the RM10,000 deductible option. Her annual premium will be RM2,400.
You can see that there is an instant saving of RM960 a year!
Allianz Medisafe Infinite+ Has a No Claim Refund:
You will now be able to enjoy a No Claim Refund of up to 20% of your medical card’s cost of insurance for the preceding policy year if no claim has been made/paid.
How much refund you are entitled to depends on the which % bracket you fall into and also the cost of insurance which you will be able to find out in your policy contract.
Let’s assume Ann from our earlier example goes for scenario 2 and she’s never made any claims, she will be looking at approximately RM141.82 refund which will credited into her account value, where she can either withdraw the money to use in her day to day life or she can leave it in the policy and allow it to grow for her.
Allianz Medisafe Infinite+ Provides Extensive Cancer Coverage:
In the past, outpatient treatment for cancer only covers chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However Allianz has now included new treatments such as targeted therapy, hormonal therapy and immunotherapy.
With Allianz MediSafe+ you will also gain access to genomic testing for cancer which will provide information about your specific cancer and help doctors identify treatments that are most suitable for you.
We’re impressed to find out that MediSafe Infinite+ is the first and only medical card in Malaysia to provide these benefits together.
Allianz Medisafe Infinite+ Offers Customization:
Allianz has given you the option to determine your own coverage term, starting with a minimum of 20 years or until you are 100 years old. With a professional Allianz agent, he/she will be able to help you adjust the coverage terms based on your needs and budget.
Allianz Medisafe Infinite+ Allows Global Expert Medical Opinion:
When it comes to your well being Allianz has gone a step further and provide a value added service which is totally free. You will get access to top experts from around the world to assist you with your medical decision making.
Back To Beginning of Allianz MediSafe Infinite+
Get Personal Support For Allianz MediSafe Infinite+
Smart X Medic
Smart Medic Xtra is the go-to medical card from Great Eastern as it offers comprehensive coverage for hospitalisation and gives high coverage to policyholders for their hospital bills.
Great Eastern Life began its operations in 1908 and has been established for over 111 years. Its operational excellence and remarkable customer service is the reason why the company has been in operation for over a century. Not many companies have been around for over 100 years.
With its financial strength of assets of over, RM79.6 billion as of 31 December 2017 and it is the largest life insurer in Malaysia and economic strength is very important for the long term success of an insurance company and protecting policyholders interests, i.e. paying claims.
The minimum Entry Age is 30 days old and maximum entry age is 65 and can be renewed till age 99.
Its 4 key features and what it means to you as the policyholder is:
1. Customisable room and board limits: Four configurations are available:*
| Room and Board | R&B 150 | R&B 200 | R&B 300 | R&B 400 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Limit | RM 90,000 | RM 120,000 | RM 160,000 | RM 200,000 |
The different Room and Board limits are to allow policyholders to choose a plan suitable for their room preference and budget. The basic plans’ annual limits can be significantly increased with the Smart Extender Rider as per below.
2. Hospital Room and Board entitlement is up to 180 days a year.
The high allowance of up to 180 days will give you as the policyholders' peace of mind when it comes to admission in the hospital.
3. The outpatient cancer treatment and outpatient kidney dialysis is fully covered as charge subject to the annual limit.
There is no lifetime limit on the outpatient treatments for both cancer and kidney dialysis, and this would allow a policyholder to enjoy peace of mind when it comes to medical bills should one have to undergo such treatment.
4. Coverage While Travelling Abroad – Supreme Assist
While you are travelling abroad for a period not exceeding 120 consecutive days, you have benefits of emergency medical evacuation and repatriation of up to RM500,000. The benefit will allow policyholders to cover the costs of travel expenses in the event of an emergency abroad.
Rider Recommendation:
It is highly recommended that you add the following Rider: Smart Extender. Smart Extender will increase the annual limit of 10 times of the corresponding Smart Medic Xtra annual limit.
Example below:
| Room and Board | R&B 150 | R&B 200 | R&B 300 | R&B 400 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smart Medic Xtra Annual Limit | RM 90,000 | RM 120,000 | RM 160,000 | RM 200,000 |
| Annual Limit with Smart Extender | RM 990,000 | RM 1,320,000 | RM 1,760,000 | RM 2,200,000 |