Expatriates who relocate to Singapore are often concerned about the high medical costs in Singapore.
Some are lucky enough to be provided with comprehensive medical coverage by their employers.
For those who are not, they will have to find a suitable international health insurance plan for themselves and their family. If you belong to the second category of people, this article serves as a guide to help you navigate the medical insurance landscape here.
The first factor to consider is whether you want an international health insurance plan or a local plan that is offered by a Singapore insurance company.
For the international plans, they are offered by Singapore insurers as well as specialized medical insurance providers like Bupa, Aetna, and Cigna.
For the local plans, the more popular ones are the integrated shield plans (IP) — a term used to identify medical insurance plans that are an enhancement of Singapore’s national medical insurance scheme, Medishield. These plans are currently offered by six companies: AIA, Aviva, AXA, Great Eastern Life, Prudential, and NTUC.
Even though the IPs are linked to Medishield, some of the companies mentioned above have a foreigner version of the plan that you can take up. For these plans, you do not really need to know about the Medishield component as it is only applicable to you when you become a citizen or permanent resident of Singapore.
There are also other local plans that are non-integrated with Medishield. These plans have a smaller pool of policyholders as they are generally not bought by citizens or permanent residents in Singapore. Thus, we will not be covering them in many details in this article.
The next question that comes to mind would be the pros and cons of international health insurance plans versus local health insurance plans. While there might be some differences depending on which company’s plan you are looking at, the table below shows some benefits of the international plans offered by the specialized medical insurance providers compared to the local IPs.
One key drawback of local plans is that claims are mostly on a reimbursement basis. This could be a problem if the medical bill ends up being a huge one.
In terms of coverage, international cheap health insurance plans are clearly superior to the local plans. If you want an international plan that can give you comprehensive coverage like inpatient, outpatient, dental, optical, and wellness benefits, you will be able to find such a plan as long as you have the money to pay for the premiums.
One thing to highlight is that some of the local non-integrated plans might be able to offer some kind of coverage for outpatient treatment and dental. The scope of coverage would be lesser than the international plans.
Which brings us to the next point. All these extra benefits come with a cost.
Let us compare the annual premiums for a 33-year-old male foreigner living in Singapore.
Local IP X
International Plan Y
Total cost if all optional components are taken with inpatient cover (no deductible) — US$5262
Another thing about the premiums is that the international plans adjust (usually an increase) their rates once or twice a year (depending on the company) compared to the local plans which do it once every few years. This is on top of the premium increase that happens when you get older and cross over to the next age band!
When you eventually sit down to choose your health insurance plan, you might want to spend more time during the decision-making process to make sure that you are able to afford the premiums on a medium to long term basis.
You can also make use of GoBear’s health insurance tool to compare the premiums charged by the different providers to find something that suits your budget.
This article was first published on GoBear Singapore blog.
