It's time to address rising insurance premiums and private healthcare costs in Singapore: New rules for IP riders

Here is what existing and new policyholders looking to make top-ups to their MediShield Life need to know, given the timeline of 1 April 2026.

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) has decided to address rising insurance premiums and private healthcare costs by introducing new design requirements for Integrated Shield Plan (IP) riders.

As a quick refresher, an Integrated Shield Plan (IP) is a type of extra health insurance that customers can buy on top of MediShield Life. Riders are optional add-ons that can be attached to an IP. An IP may help patients access higher-tier hospital wards or help reduce out-of-pocket co-payment.

Here's a quick summary of what the new rules are, and what they mean for insurance policy holders. To learn about each change in greater details, scroll past the quick summary below.

1. From 1 April 2026, new IP riders sold will no longer be permitted to cover the minimum IP deductibles (i.e. the first amount insurance holders must pay before insurance kicks in) set by MOH. This implies new customers buying riders after April 2026 must pay the deductible out-of-pocket. Likely, this measure is meant to reduce over-consumption and keep healthcare costs in check.

2. The co-payment cap will also be raised to a minimum of S$6,000 to keep pace with the increase in bill sizes over time. The cap will apply to co-payments excluding the minimum IP deductible. This implies that for new buyers, their maximum out-of-pocket before insurance pays 100% will be at least S$6,000, plus the deductible. Given that medical bills have been rising, MOH is likely trying to prevent “zero-payment” situations.

3. Singaporeans can expect the new riders to be much more affordable, with premiums of new private hospital riders expected to be about 30% lower on average, compared to existing riders with maximum coverage. As such, Singaporeans who purchase the new IP riders can benefit from lower premiums while still having assurance against catastrophic medical bills. This is because the new riders will not cover deductibles and will have higher co-pay caps.

Let's now dive deeper into these changes, and the rationale for the understanding of existing and new policyholders.

Very comprehensive coverage can be very expensive - which is why coverage needs to be moderated

Currently, policyholders can buy a rider together with their main IP to limit their co-payment, mainly for private healthcare. However, while very comprehensive coverage can confer ‘absolute peace of mind’ to the policyholder, it can be very expensive and drives up healthcare costs.

Worryingly, as MOH pointed out, with minimal co-payment, there is a greater tendency for over-servicing by healthcare providers and higher risk of over-consumption of healthcare services by patients.

MOH's data shows that private hospital IP policyholders with riders are 1.4 times as likely to make a claim, with an average claim size of 1.4 times of those without riders. As a result, bill sizes and claims are rising significantly; this in turn drives up insurance premiums, especially for riders.

This is why it has become necessary to moderate the coverage of IP riders.

As such, as from 1 April 2026, new IP riders sold will no longer be permitted to cover the minimum IP deductibles set by MOH.

Further, the co-payment cap, which was set at a minimum of S$3,000 per year in 2018, will be raised to a minimum of S$6,000 per year to keep pace with the increase in bill sizes over time. The cap will apply on co-payments excluding the minimum IP deductible.

The deductible and co-payments can be paid using MediSave, subject to prevailing withdrawal limits. There will no change to the minimum 5% co-payment requirement.

MOH continues to set the minimum IP deductible that each IP is required to have. This ranges from S$1,500 to S$3,500 per policy year and varies by ward class. See below for the values:

In its statement, MOH explained: "These changes will help to bring health insurance back to its original objective, which is to protect patients against larger healthcare bills. It will increase cost discipline over minor episodes, and reduce over-servicing and over-consumption associated with non-essential hospital admissions or treatments."

It added: "On average, the premiums of new IP riders are expected to be about 30% lower than existing riders with maximum coverage. This translates to annual premiums savings of around S$600 for private hospital IP rider policyholders and around $200 for public hospital rider policyholders, on average, with older policyholders enjoying greater premium savings."

Implementation timeline for insurers and policyholders

Insurers are to launch new IP riders that comply with the revised requirements by 1 April 2026. They are to cease sales of non-compliant riders on the same day.

Insurers can continue selling existing riders until 31 March 2026 but must inform new policyholders who purchase such riders on or after 27 November 2025 that they will transition to riders that meet the new requirements no later than their next policy renewal after 1 April 2028.

As existing rider policies are contracts between insurers and their policyholders, individual insurers are asked to determine their own approach for their existing rider policyholders. In the meantime, existing rider policyholders who purchased their policies before 27 November 2025 may wish to speak to their financial advisors and consider if the new IP riders better suit their needs.

Some of the other recent changes that MOH has taken to address rising private healthcare costs include:

- Setting fee benchmarks to guide charging practices,
- Taking enforcement action against the small minority of doctors who make inappropriate claims, and
- Exploring the feasibility of a new not-for-profit private hospital.

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