Saving yourself from hospital bills

I have been doing a lot of reading about how CPF works and the protection they offers i.e Medical protection.

The contribution that you made every month from you salary and employer’s contribution get distributed in to 3 of the account, CPF Ordinary Account, CPF Special Account and MediSave. (For Self-employed, they are required to make top ups to meet the minimum sum requirement.)

Medisave, introduced in April 1984, is a national medical savings scheme which helps individuals put aside part of their income into their Medisave Accounts to meet their future personal or immediate family’s hospitalization, day surgery and certain outpatient expenses.

Under the scheme, every employee contributes 6.5-8.5% (depending on age group) of his monthly salary to a personal Medisave account. The savings can be withdrawn to pay the hospital bills of the account holder and his immediate family members.

MediShield is a Medical protection that requires the patient to pay a deductible amount and co-insurance. The MediShield is a low cost catastrophic illness insurance scheme. Introduced in 1990, the government designed MediShield to help members meet medical expenses from major or prolonged illnesses, which could not be sufficiently covered by their Medisave balance. 

Premiums for MediShield are payable by Medisave. A very large medical bill can easily wipe out your Medisave balance, as it is only a cash savings account. MediShield will cover an average of nearly 60% of your large medical bill at Class B2 or C wards. Your co-payment and deductibles can be payable using Medisave or cash.

This means that you have to pay the remaining 40% of the medical bills. Take a look at the MediShield brochure from Ministry of Health – The example given on page 5.   http://www.moh.gov.sg/mohcorp/uploadedFiles/Healthcare_Financing/Medishield/medishield.pdf

 From there, you claimed $9,150 from MediShield but needs to pay $3,610 either from MediSave or Cash. That is about 2 months of an average salary. Or another way is to claim from a hospital and surgical hospital plans. Make sure that the hospital plans has no deductible and co-insurance if you want to benefit from it.

Give me a message if you want to know more details.