women's health insurance

For the vast majority of women, health insurance is not an "optional consumption" but a "necessary configuration", but there is absolutely no need to buy it indiscriminately - spend 20% of your money first on protection that covers women's unique high-risk risks, and the remaining 80% of the budget should follow the logic of conventional health insurance. There is no need to pay unnecessary premiums for "women-only" gimmicks.

A while ago, I was helping a 32-year-old sister in the same department sort out the insurance policies she bought two years ago after being sold by relatives. I almost laughed out loud: the one she bought is called "women's exclusive critical illness insurance" and is nearly 30% more expensive than regular critical illness insurance with the same insurance amount. It is said to be "women's specific protection" and has additional benefits. The compensation was actually for rare diseases such as vulvar cancer and vaginal cancer, with a clinical incidence rate of less than 0.5%. Breast cancer and cervical cancer, which are really high-incidence cancers, were already included in the basic protection for regular critical illnesses. The extra two thousand yuan she paid every year was basically in vain.

To be honest, I have been an insurance broker for 6 years, and the number of policies I have received for female customers range from 1,000 to 800. There are really not a few people who fall into this "female-only" trap. Let’s start with the claims data disclosed by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission: Breast cancer alone accounts for 41% of critical illness claims for women aged 25-60, and cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, and endometrial cancer combined account for 18%. Together with thyroid cancer, which has an incidence rate three times that of men, these categories account for more than 70% of critical illness claims for women. These diseases are inherently covered by all conventional critical illness insurances, and no conventional critical illness will exclude them.

The current attitude towards women's health insurance in the industry is actually quite polarized: many people in the brokerage circle will directly say that "women's-only health insurance is all a premium package", which essentially means taking out the existing protection and repackaging it to make it more expensive.； But people on the product side of insurance companies also have their own reasons. They say that women have special physiological structures and the risks related to fertility and gynecological diseases are much higher than men. Extra compensation for specific liabilities can increase leverage and get more money if something goes wrong.

I personally think that both sides are right. The core thing is whether the extra money you pay in exchange for the protection is worth it. For example, two years ago, a client had a family history of breast cancer, and she herself had grade 3 breast nodules, except for the routine critical illness insurance. So she spent an additional 47 yuan a year to buy women's specific cancer medical insurance, and if she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she would be compensated 200,000 yuan. It was well worth the money. But if you are in good health and have no relevant family history, and all high-risk diseases are covered normally when you buy regular critical illness insurance, then it is really unnecessary to spend thousands more to buy a "women's exclusive insurance" that bundles a bunch of useless responsibilities.

If you really don’t know how to choose, you can actually compare it to buying skin care products: First, get enough basic moisturizer (millions of dollars’ worth of medical insurance + regular/lifetime critical illness insurance). These two are basic protections that both men and women must have. A few thousand dollars a year can cover more than 90% of health risks.； If you have specific needs, such as a family history, or common female problems such as breast nodules or HPV positivity, you can add a separate "functional essence" - that is, additional insurance for women's specific diseases worth tens to hundreds of dollars a year. Just add targeted leverage. There is no need to spend several times more to buy the entire set of bundled products for the few useless samples included in the package.

Oh, by the way, there is another point that many people tend to overlook: when women buy health insurance, they must pay attention to telling the truth about abnormalities related to the breast, thyroid, and gynecology. Don't listen to the salesperson's nonsense that "you don't need to fill in small questions." I met a customer last year who did not mention that he had Category 4a breast nodules when he bought it. Later, he was diagnosed with breast cancer and was directly denied compensation. It took a long time to negotiate for half of the compensation. It was too annoying.

Anyway, what I allocate for myself is the conventional NT$500,000 lifelong critical illness + NT$298 million medical treatment per year, plus an extra NT$58 per year for female-specific cancer. After all, my mother has a history of breast hyperplasia, so I want peace of mind. There is never a standard answer when it comes to buying insurance. Don’t be fooled by the marketing rhetoric of “women should be nicer to themselves.” It’s better to identify the risk gaps yourself before taking action.