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SINGAPORE – The benefits offered by MediShield Life are scheduled to expand starting next year, to cover more and larger hospital bills, with proposed annual claim limits increased from $ 100,000 to $ 150,000.
To pay for these extra benefits and rising health care costs, premiums are expected to increase next year by as much as 35 percent.
This will be the first increase in mandatory health insurance premiums since its launch five years ago. At the higher end, the proposed increase will exceed $ 500 a year.
But given the difficult times Singaporeans now face, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said the government will soften the impact of the premium increase with a special Covid-19 subsidy for the first two years.
In the first year, all Singaporeans will get a 70 percent subsidy on the increase. This drops to 30 percent in the second year. This will cost the government $ 360 million.
This is in addition to existing grants of 15 to 50 percent awarded to low and middle income groups, and 40 to 60 percent for pioneers. The Merdeka generation receives additional subsidies of 5 to 10 percent.
In total, subsidies for the next three years will amount to $ 2.2 billion.
The higher premiums proposed will allow for better benefits, including:
– Increased coverage for subacute care in community hospitals, such as for someone recovering from a heart attack, and for outpatient radiation therapy. The daily claims limit in community hospitals is currently adequate to cover rehabilitation care, but not subacute care, which costs about 20% more. It is proposed to increase the claims limit to $ 430 per day for subacute care.
– Higher annual claim limit of $ 150,000, up from the current $ 100,000. About 100 people reached the limit last year and received no more coverage for their large hospital bills.
– Higher claim limits for some charges, such as intensive care, rising from $ 1,200 per day to $ 2,200 per day, dialysis and psychiatric care, among others.
– An additional claim of $ 200 per day for daily ward charges for the first two days of hospitalization, when most tests and investigations are performed.
– In the future, MediShield Life will also cover treatment for attempted suicide, self-harm, substance abuse, and alcoholism.
– Lower deductible of $ 2,000 (less than $ 3,000) for people 80 years and older for outpatient surgery. This aligns you with your deductible amount in a C classroom, so patients won’t need to be reprimanded just to qualify for insurance coverage.
However, the claims limit for people treated in private hospitals will be lowered from 35 percent of the bill to 25 percent. According to recent bills, 35 percent of private hospital care amounts to much higher amounts than the bills of subsidized patients.
The change in apportionment does not affect people who receive private care in public hospitals. They continue to receive 35 percent of their bills paid by MediShield Life.
The new claim limits should bring MediShield Life back in line with its original mandate to cover 90 percent of subsidized bills for 90 percent of patients, beyond the initial deductible and copay. Last year it was revealed that coverage had dropped and only 80 percent of patients were getting full coverage for their subsidized bills.
The MediShield Life Council said: “MediShield Life claims limits should be updated to cover nine out of 10 subsidized bills and should be reviewed more regularly to ensure they offer adequate protection in light of inflation and medical advances.”
These proposed changes are expected to go live sometime in the first quarter of next year. Meanwhile, the council is seeking people’s opinions on these “preliminary recommendations,” with a public consultation until October 20.
Details on preliminary recommendations can be viewed and comments are submitted on this website.
Council Chairman Fang Ai Lian said: “We need to periodically review and update the benefits and premiums of the scheme to keep up with the evolution of medical practice, inflation of healthcare costs and actual experience of claims, so that it continues to provide security to Singaporeans, while remaining sustainable. ” “
From now on, reviews will take place every three years.
Dr Tan Wu Meng, head of the government’s Parliamentary Health Committee, supports the changes, although he said some of the premium increases are “significant.”
He told The Straits Times: “The revised claim limit per policy year and the UCI claim limits are consistent with supporting Singaporeans through catastrophic illness.”
Regarding removing exclusions from MediShield Life, Dr. Tan said, “This would also be a key statement about inclusion and the tone we want in our society.”
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