Healthcare
Health insurance safeguards you and your loved ones against the financial loss you could suffer in the event of an accident, illness or disability.
It makes up for your income loss or covers the cost of your medical treatment.
Medisave and MediShield Life may not be enough
Regular contributions to Medisave are deducted from one's salary. Portions of the hospital expenses not covered by MediShield Life can be paid by MediSave up to a certain limit.
Medisave is used to purchase MediShield Life.
MediShield Life is a basic health insurance plan, administered by the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board, which helps to pay for large hospital bills and selected costly outpatient treatments, such as dialysis and chemotherapy for cancer. It is structured so that patients pay less MediSave/cash for large hospital bills.
MediShield Life is sized for subsidised treatment in public hospitals and pegged at B2/C-type wards. Those who prefer higher wards, more coverage like pre- and post-hospitalisation, higher claim limits as well as the availability of riders can opt for Integrated Shield Plans.
MediShield Life and Integrated Shield Plans have co-insurance and deductible features to keep premiums affordable.
Riders are additional coverage that you can get on top of your Integrated Shield Plan – at a higher premium - to cover your co-insurance and deductible payment.
New riders will be available by 1 April 2019, which:
- Incorporate a co-payment of 5% or more.
- Have a cap on the co-payment amount each year for treatments that are pre-authorised or provided by doctors on the insurer’s approved panel. This is to address concerns from some policyholders that they may face high co-payment amounts due to the unlikely event of very large bills. Insurers can set a co-payment cap of $3,000 or more per policy year. This places an upper limit on the risk exposure for policyholders, to protect them against very large bills.
In the meantime, existing rider plans may still be provided by insurers. Insurers will inform their new policyholders that they will transit to the new riders with co-payment from 1 April 2021.
These changes will not affect MediShield Life or Integrated Shield Plans, which already have co-payment features.
What products are for you?
The type of health insurance you need depends on what you want protection against.
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If you wish to… |
You should consider… |
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Have your medical expenses paid |
Medical expense insurance |
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Receive a fixed amount of cash when you are in hospital |
Hospital cash insurance |
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Reduce your financial burden when you are diagnosed with a major illness (e.g. cancer) |
Critical illness insurance |
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Replace your income when you are unable to work |
Disability income insurance |
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Pay the cost of care you need when you are too weak to look after yourself |
Long-term care insurance |
A financial adviser can take you through a fact-find process to identify where the gaps are in your health insurance coverage and recommend appropriate health insurance solutions.
Contact any one of our member companies to put you in touch with a financial adviser.
For information on what health insurance can do for you, refer to FAQs.
