Council to Provide Recommendations on Reasonable Integrated Shield Plan and Rider Premium Increases for Private Healthcare

Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health whether the Ministry will consider establishing a council to provide recommendations on reasonable Integrated Shield Plan and rider premium increases for private healthcare.

The Minister of State for Health (Ms Rahayu Mahzam) (for the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health): Mr Speaker, Integrated Shield Plans (IPs) and riders are private, commercial products and IP insurers operate in a competitive market. Therefore, the quantum and frequency of premium revisions are subject to insurers' actuarial and commercial considerations which are best left to market forces. The Government's role should be to ensure affordable, accessible and good quality subsidised healthcare for Singaporeans.

Mr Speaker: Mr Yip.

Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister of State for her reply. My question pertains to seniors. Many retirees may downgrade or drop private coverage due to premium increases, even as MediShield Life premium also rises. Will the Ministry consider establishing a pricing council or having broader regulatory guardrails that helps in terms of financial security and access options for seniors as well as middle-income households?

Ms Rahayu Mahzam: Mr Speaker, in response to the Member's question, I would just also reiterate the point I made earlier that we do want to take a balanced approach, because while we do want to actually protect consumers, it is important to appreciate that some of the premium revisions are really issues of market decisions and we do have to leave some of this to market forces.

Having said that, I appreciate that there are concerns on the impact to consumers. As mentioned in previous Parliamentary Questions, firstly, information is made available and there is a lot of guidelines to try and get people to make the best decisions. Separately, we have also been looking at different modalities and approaches, including introducing benchmark for private professional fees to guide pricing and guard against overcharging. We have taken enforcement actions against small minority of doctors who make errant claims. We have also intervened to improve consumer fairness and transparency. We will continue to work on these to make sure that consumers are protected.