This was what a client of mine recently lamented about. And he’s not alone. Nowadays, our children’s medical bills can really come up to quite a sum. A basic consultation at the PD can cost more than $50 and an average bill can easily come up to $80-100 per visit. This is not considering more complicated cases that require special medication or scans. I recall a good friend of mine once forked out $500 in a single PD visit for his son’s persistent cough!

Especially during this year end period when viruses are abound, children can easily catch the bug from one another at childcare centres or schools. Parents suffer when their sick children pass on the germs to their siblings or even the parents themselves, resulting in a vicious cycle of illness within the family.

The question then is what can parents do to relieve themselves of the hefty medical bills?

Here are 4 simple solutions that can help

1) Make use of baby bonus

The baby bonus scheme is a government scheme designed to help lighten the financial costs of raising children. For the 1st and 2nd child, parents will get a cash gift of $4000 each from the government and a dollar for dollar matching in savings by the government up to $6000 each. So in total, there will be a total sum of $10,000. The money stored in the Child Development Account (CDA) can be used to pay for medical bills at approved clinics, pharmacies and even optical shops.

You can check the following website to see if your child’s clinic is under one of the approved institution. http://www.babybonus.gov.sg/bbss/jsp/inst/InstInternetMaint.jsp

* Update*

Under the new and enhanced Marriage and Parenthood Package 2013, parents will receive a bigger cash gift for children born on or after 26th Aug 2012. The cash gift will be increased to $6000 each for the 1st and 2nd child (up from $4000) and $8000 each for the 3rd and 4th child (up from $6000).

2) Leverage on company’s outpatient coverage for family members

Some companies provide outpatient medical coverage for their staff and dependents as a form of employee benefit. Typically, such group outpatient plans can cover majority of the bill at General Practitional (GP) clinics, especially those listed under the panel group. Some plans come with a medical card which you can simply display at the panel clinics to settle the bill in full or with a small amount of co-payment. Alternatively employees can make a reimbursement claim for bills incurred at non panel clinics.

This is a cost effective means of securing coverage for your children and it can help offset bulk of the bills without forking out additional cash for the premiums.

Depending on the list of panel clinics, it usually doesn’t include the paediatricians which can be more costly. However for older children, parents can bring them to GP clinics that are well known for providing effective medication for children. Just ask around for recommendations by fellow parents who stay around your area or search the forums.

3) Get comprehensive private medical plans

For more comprehensive coverage that covers for both hospitalisation and outpatient treatment at GP and Specialists (SP) e.g paediatricians,  there are private plans available that can help to pay for all or part of the medical bills.

However the premiums for such private plans will be considerably higher and may work out to be worthwhile for families whose children are more prone to illness and tend to incur very high medical bills.

Such plans will also be helpful if your company does not provide any group outpatient benefits or if you are a self employed or entrepreneur.

4)  Use Medisave to get comprehensive hospitalisation coverage

For those with budget constraints, a basic and cost effective solution is to cover their children for comprehensive hospitalisation insurance, so that in the event of more serious illness, their financial burden can be reduced. Good news is that Medisave can be used to pay for part of the premiums and parents just need to top up some cash (~$1 a day) to cover the bill from the first dollar.

In particular, Aviva offers parents free hospitalisation coverage for their children, up to the age of 20, for as many as 4 children, if both parents are on the plan 1 or 2. This can translate into significant Medisave savings over the years, especially for parents with 2 to 3 children.

So there you have it, 4 simple solutions to manage the medical bills of your children so they do not end up eating away your salary!

To Your Success and Happiness,

Yong Hui