MediShield to be tweaked from March next year

The insurance scheme which covers mainly large medical bills, MediShield, will be tweaked from March next year to provide better coverage for the elderly. 

This comes after the health ministry 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're between 76 and 80 years old can withdraw a bigger amount - of $1,000, compared with the current $800; 

while those who're above 80 years old can withdraw up to $1,200, compared with $1,150 currently. 

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. 

The ministry will scrap the MediShield maximum entry age of 75; and increase the maximum age coverage to 90 to enable those who're healthy but not insured to be covered. 

It'll 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 $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.