IP rider changes meant to address growing shift from private to public healthcare: Ong Ye Kung

These changes will only affect new policyholders who need riders to go to private hospitals, said Mr Ong.

Singapore is addressing this issue so that in the long-term, it can avoid a “big influx” of patients moving from private healthcare to public options, he added.

“As it is, public health care runs 80 per cent of the hospital beds in Singapore, catering to 90 per cent of the patients. So I think we need to arrest this trend.”

Singapore has rolled out several other measures to tackle the problem, including a major review of Medishield Life, strengthening segments of public healthcare subsidies and introducing benchmarks for hospital fees and professional fees, he noted.

The government has also started taking enforcement action against the “small proportion” of doctors and surgeons who set their fees inappropriately, said Mr Ong.

“But I think we cannot run away from the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle, which is that insurance also plays a part, and therefore we’re making these changes to new IP rider policies.”