Insurance for the self-employed has been launched – $125 annual premium for a maximum payout of $4,200
I refer to the front page headlines article “Insurance for freelancers to guard against income loss” (Straits Times, Jun 22).
It states that “The new policy is among a list of recommendations made in February by a tripartite workgroup looking into the needs of self-employed persons. There are more than 223,000 residents who are self-employed, and this number has grown, fuelled by new jobs created by disruptive technologies in sectors such as transport and food delivery.
The tripartite workgroup had noted that freelancers had little protection against a lost of income due to prolonged illness.
… offers three tiers of daily cash benefits – $50, $100 and $200. Customers choose the level of coverage based on what they have earned in the last 90 days. For example, to be eligible for the $50-a-day cash benefit policy, they must have earned more than $4,500 in the recent three months. For payouts to be triggered, policy holders must either be on medical leave for longer than five days, or hospitalised longer than three days. After these excess periods, Flip will then compensate individuals the daily cash amounts for up to 21 days of medical leave, or 84 days of hospitalisation.”
As to “Premiums start from about $2.40 per week for $50 per day coverage, and from $12.20 per week for $200 per day coverage” – does it mean that the annual premium is $634.40 ($12.20 x 52 weeks) to get coverage which has a maximum payouts of $4,200 (21 days medical leave) and $16,800 (84 days hospitalisation)?
Leong Sze Hian
