Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bassexpander]

Many of you are interested in private or long-term health insurance, and have asked me to post about my meeting with a Samsung Health/Life Insurance representative.

Last night, my wife arranged for me to meet with this guy, and his interpreter. We spent two hours reviewing the policies. We looked at so many different options, which changed depending on what you wanted to spend/save, that it's difficult to go into much detail here. It was all in Korean.

Basically, prices ranged between about 90,000 won to 268,000 won per month. You could choose a policy where you would pay more up-front, but could get a larger amount of money back, prorated depending on your age. I am choosing a policy for around 118,000 won with no long-term extra savings built in. You can choose between s hort and long-term policies. The difference is in the percentage of your policy you get back, depending on when you quit. The dumb thing is that the shor t-term policy must be renewed at different rates every 3 years. The dumber thing is that they basically re-figure your long-term policy every 3 years anyway, so what's the difference, other than the percentages you can get back when you quit in 40 years? It's all pretty typical insurance bullshit.

Initially, he was showing me a plan called, "Samsung All-Life" which included health and savings, but I had heard somewhere that these life insurance savings programs aren't the best use of a persons money (it's better to invest the cost difference yourself). After I decided I didn't want that, he showed me another line of policies instead, which was basically the same, but with no such built-in savings.

The policies spelled-out several categories, and what they cover under each one. They provide extra insurance to pay for costs far above what normal national health care will cover (to be smart you should have national health care at the same time, although not required). If you had one of these policies without national health care, they would cover the amount not covered by national health care, but you'd still pay the national health care percentage yourself.

If my memory serves me right, the most expensive Samsung All-Life plan (for a male my age -- mid/late 30s) provided about 100 million won of total coverage for just about everything. Cancer coverage, however, was less. It was something like 70 or 80 million. The lower policy, which I am interested in, is pretty much the same thing with slightly lower limits (mostly on cancer). I think it maxes-out at around 50 or 60 million for cancer. The lowest policy, which cost about 90,000 per month, had a cancer max-out of around 10 to 20 million. Other limits on that policy were considerably lower, as well.

I learned (from my wife) that many Koreans have 2 or 3 different policies in addition to the national health insurance. She has 2. She also pays an additional 30,000 per month to AIG insurance for a cancer-only policy. The reason is because her mother got cancer (and was cured) some years back. She took the payout from her insurance company, and was immediately dropped. Now she cannot get insurance with anyone. So if she gets cancer again, she's dead. That's the way it works here, and that's why you should get two or more policies from two different companies.

One thing that I was quite perturbed by was the list of questions they hit you with AFTER you've spent an hour or two discussing policies, and finally decided on one. My wife answered most of the questions without me hearing them, but the one which was problematic for me was the motorcycle question.

Basically, if you plan to buy this insurance, you might as well sell your motorcycle. Why? They check every 3 years to make sure you don't own a registered motorcycle, or insurance on any motorcycle of any size. If you do own one, your policy limits are cut in half, or worse. Nice, eh? Consequently, my scooter is up for sale on the Buy/Sell page here. Too bad, I just got it and it's a nice little machine.

The insurance agent told me that I shouldn't even buy the policy until I get rid of it, because even if I sell it after buying, I will never be able to get the better limits again. Sucks, eh? So now we're on hold until I sell it.

I assume similar things happen if you are a drinker or a smoker. They even asked if I had ever taken medication for more than one month at a time in my life, and if I had had any surgery in the past 5 years.

Anyway, if anyone has any more questions I can help with, please fire away. I have the guys number, and asked him to provide me with an English breakdown of the coverages. I'll try to post that here when I get it.

[4 months left]

NEVER buy any insurance that includes savings. Sales reps like to sell those because they get the biggest commission from them. This info can easily be found from doing a search - term life vs. whole life.

[mrsquirrel]

BE

I got a quote from Amex website for myself and my wife for 960 pounds for expat health insurance for Korea. NO excess. no coverage for the states though.

Need to check and see if it is limited to use only in Korea or if it can be used in other countries

Oh and it was 300 pounds cheaper than the quote I got directly from Goodlife the people that Amex are getting their cover from.

Benefits

[tzechuk]

What you've said sounds about right, BP.

We have insurances with AIG... works for us.

I am looking into life insurances - and education insurance. All of these for the benefit of my daughter.

[mrsquirrel]

[tzechuk]

[regicide]

[4 months left]

Sorry to hear about your cousin but something doesn't sound right about that story. Term is usaully at least 10 years. If he died only a few years later after cancelling his whole life and getting term, it sounds like the agent really screwed him by selling him an extremely short term policy.

Whole life usaully doesn't have a very high value compared to term and is very expensive. Do some research into Whole vs. Term. Someone who is not directly involved in the whole life business will NEVER recommend Whole over Term.

You buy term when you are young to protect your spouse and children. As you get older, you pay off your mortgage, kids go to school and your debt lessens. As you build assets and investments, your need for life insurance decreases. Health insurance is another story.

Whole life policies are more expensive, buy term and invest the difference and you will be by far greater ahead in the long run.

Met Life motto - "Get Met, it pays" ... the agent!

[bassexpander]

When you say, "term" do you mean that the policy must be renewed every 10 years?

If this was indeed term that the agent was talking about, then he was very specific that the policy was renewed every 3 years.

[4 months left]

[Bibbitybop]

Personally, I would never trade riding motorcycles for insurance reasons unless I knew I was about to get really sick.

That policy is retarded. Would you be able to have the bike in a friend's name and you always "borrow" the bike?

Just curious. I roll the dice, don't have extra insurance and ride every day if the weather permits.

[shifty]

It does make sense that cover should be at its height in the younger years, viz when there are kids whose fortunes need to be guaranteed.

On the face of it then, renewable term or just plain term insurance would seem to be the most efficient answer. But, it's not that simple.

Term insurance selects against the insurer, in that they could incur a sizable loss in the selected period. They therefore stack the premium as an antidote. The cornerstone of insurance is to spread the risk over as many as possible. In whole of life assurance, which assumes a savings element and is over a longer period covering more lives, that is more easlily achievable. Notwithstanding the higher commission, it can be cheaper. Decidedly so if the inherent cash value is taken into account.

You will see a very small gap between the prices and those are the reasons.

Also, in renewable term insurance, when you renew, it is only in terms of health that it is renewable. The premium is levied as according to the age when you renew. I'm not giving specific advice, b/c it is so complex.

If you add a health rider to term insurance it is at a rate much higher than if it were added to life assurance. It is also problematic adding say dreaded disease cover (cancer etc) to term insurance knowing that it will fall away at a given date. However, dreaded disease can be obtained as a stand alone, so something there too to consider.

Permanent life assurance is important, b/c you will always need it.

On the other hand, if you are buying in Korea, it depends how wedded you are to Korea. I wouldn't dream of buying a whole life assurance in Korea (or France for that matter) if I was ultimately destined for say Canada, America and other.

If I were in Korea and tentative about staying, then term cover is the one for me!!

Bassexpander, I'm totally flummoxed by the 3 year renewable feature.

[regicide]

[regicide]

duplicate post

[4 months left]