Significantly lower proration factors, recommended by MediShield Life Council, will place bigger burden on IPs; premium hikes likely in 2025
AN AGEING population, rising healthcare costs and advances in medicine threaten to make healthcare unaffordable to most Singaporeans.
The just-released MediShield Life Council review has stepped in with a slew of recommendations to address exactly that. MediShield Life is the basic health scheme that covers all Singaporeans and permanent residents. It is designed to cover nine in 10 subsidised bills. But rising costs have eroded its coverage, and it now covers less than eight in 10 bills.
Estimates of medical inflation in Singapore range between 10.67 per cent and as high as 13 per cent – higher than the average for Asia-Pacific.