SINGAPORE: MediShield Life premiums will increase from April 2025 as the government expands the national health insurance scheme.lucky time

This comes after a review of the insurance scheme by the MediShield Life Council. It called for increased claim limits to better protect Singaporeans against large medical bills and expanded coverage to help patients afford new types of care and treatments.

With higher claims and expansion of coverage, premiums may increase by as much as 35 per cent. The increases will be phased evenly over three years from April next year to March 2028.

With this, premiums will increase by an average of 22 per cent per policyholder by the end of the third year, read the council’s report, which was published on Tuesday (Oct 15).

To fund this, the council recommended a one-off release of around S$600 million from the MediShield Life Fund so as to cap the total premium increase at 35 per cent and phase it evenly. 

WHAT ARE THE NEW BENEFITS? 

The higher premiums will support the changes to the MediShield Life scheme. Here are some of the new benefits: 

Higher claim limits for existing inpatient and day surgery.  Raise the policy year claim limit from S$150,000 to S$200,000.The council said that very few patients – about 50 per year – currently exceed the policy year claim limit and that these cases are largely due to prolonged hospital stays. Increasing this will provide greater assurance for such patients with exceptionally large bills.

3. Increase inpatient deductible by up to S$1,500. 

This has not been adjusted since the scheme was introduced in 2015. With rising medical bills, the council said the deductible has become less effective in sieving out smaller, more affordable bills which can be paid for by MediSave. Increasing the deductible will allow MediShield Life to focus its coverage on larger medical bills and moderate the extent of premium growth. 

4. Refresh existing outpatient claim limits and lower outpatient co-insurance from a flat 10 per cent to a tiered structure ranging from 3 per cent to 10 per cent. 

5. Expand coverage to include new outpatient treatments and home-based medical care.

6. Introduce a new outpatient deductible of S$500 per year. 

The deductible paid for inpatient treatments would also count towards the outpatient deductible and vice versa. For example, if a patient has paid S$500 towards his deductible in the inpatient setting, he would have fulfilled the outpatient deductible for the policy year. 

7. Expand coverage to new high-cost treatments that are both clinically and cost-effective lucky time

This includes treatments on the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) cell, tissue and gene therapy products (CTGTPs) list, as well as high-cost drugs for blood conditions such as haemophilia and childhood onset conditions. 

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