SINGAPORE: MediShield, the insurance scheme which
covers mainly large medical bills, will be tweaked from March next
year to provide better coverage for the elderly.
This comes after the Ministry of Health received
largely positive feedback after a public consultation in July and
August to make MediShield more inclusive.
The ministry will raise the Medisave withdrawal
limit for MediShield and Integrated Shield Plans to fully cover
basic premiums.
Those who are between 76 and 80 years old can withdraw a bigger
amount of S$1,000 instead of the current S$800.
Those who are above 80 years old can withdraw up to S$1,200, up
from current S$1,150.
Health Minister Gan Kim Yong says the changes will allow more
people, especially the elderly, to use Medisave to pay for
premiums.
"The withdrawal limits today may not be enough and some of them may
have to fork out cash in order to pay for the premiums. That's why
we adjusted the withdrawal limit so that most of them will not need
to fork out additional cash. They will be able to tap on the
Medisave up to the limit to pay for the MediShield," said Mr
Gan.
The ministry will scrap the MediShield maximum entry age of 75 and
increase the maximum age coverage to 90 to enable those who are
healthy but not insured to be covered.
It will consider extending coverage to congenital and neonatal
conditions to better support healthcare costs for children.
This will be part of ongoing discussions at the Singapore
Conversation.
Coverage will be extended to inpatient psychiatric treatment at
S$100 per day, up to 35 days per year, and short-stay wards in
Emergency Departments.
Other adjustments include increasing the deductibles for Class C
and B2 bills.
The increase will be from S$1,000 to S$1500, and S$1,500 to S$2,000
for Class B2 bills.
The deductible is the amount of a hospital bill that patients have
to pay before claiming insurance.
- CNA/ir