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SINGAPORE \u2013 Almost all current Integrated Shield Plan (IP) rider plans will not be sold come April 2026, when the <\/p>\n Ministry of Health\u2019s (MOH) new requirements<\/p>\n <\/a> take effect.<\/p>\n Only two plans out of 28 available now can continue to be sold to new policyholders from April 1.<\/p>\n MOH announced in November that new IP riders sold from April 2026 will no longer be allowed to cover the minimum deductibles set by MOH, meaning patients with the new riders have to pay at least $1,500 before insurance coverage kicks in.<\/p>\n The co-payment cap will also be doubled from the current $3,000 to $6,000, which means those on the new riders will need to pay a larger portion of their bills.<\/p>\n This is to address rising insurance premiums and private healthcare costs and, in turn, slow down the migration of private healthcare patients to the public sector, which already caters to 90 per cent of patients.<\/p>\n As a result of MOH\u2019s latest requirements, new riders are expected to cost a lot less \u2013 premiums will be about 30 per cent lower than those of existing riders with maximum coverage.<\/p>\n But current riders whose premiums are set at a relatively low level and so could even be cheaper than the new riders that replace them will still be on the way out.<\/p>\n In response to queries from The Straits Times, MOH said: \u201cAll existing riders that do not meet these (new) requirements, even if they have lower premiums and higher co-payment requirements than the most generous riders today, will not be available to new policyholders from April 1, 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n For the estimated two million Singapore residents who had bought riders before Nov 26, when MOH announced the new requirements, they are <\/p>\n currently not affected by MOH\u2019s requirements.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Insurance companies in the Singapore market will study whether to adjust the coverage of the existing riders.<\/p>\n All seven IP insurers now offer riders that provide additional coverage on top of the IP coverage. <\/p>\n Six insurers have confirmed that their entire suite of riders \u2013 totalling 25 different plans \u2013 do not meet MOH\u2019s requirements, and said they would launch new riders that make the cut for new buyers by April 2026. These insurers are AIA, Great Eastern (GE), HSBC Life, Income Insurance, Prudential and Singlife. <\/p>\n Raffles Health Insurance has three rider products \u2013 its Key Rider will be bowing out, but its Premier Rider and Cancer Guard Rider are not impacted. <\/p>\n Most of the riders to be phased out offer coverage for the minimum IP deductibles, hence they do not meet MOH\u2019s new requirements.<\/p>\n The minimum IP deductibles as at November is at least $1,500 for subsidised patients staying in Class C wards, or day surgery and short-stay wards.<\/p>\n There are rider plans, such as GE\u2019s two TotalCare Basic plans and Singlife\u2019s two Health Plus Lite plans, that do not cover the deductibles. But as they do not meet the revised minimum co-payment cap of $6,000, they also have to be removed.<\/p>\n Among the 26 plans to cease sales, some have premiums priced much lower than riders which provide maximum coverage. But they will still be phased out because they either cover the deductibles or cap co-payment at $3,000.<\/p>\n For instance, the average premiums for Income\u2019s Classic Care Rider, which imposes a 10 per cent co-payment, are about 40 per cent lower than its Deluxe Care Rider, which imposes a 5 per cent co-payment.<\/p>\n When asked about having to drop a cheaper rider and launch new ones which will cost more, Income chief customer officer Dhiren Amin said that Income agrees with MOH\u2019s objectives to support long-term sustainability of private healthcare insurance, and promote responsible usage of healthcare services.<\/p>\n \u201cThe revised requirements introduced by MOH are not solely about whether an existing rider has lower premiums or higher co-payment requirements. Rather, they require IP riders coming onto the market from April 1, 2026, to be designed differently in order to support these objectives,\u201d said Mr Amin.<\/p>\n For Singlife, the current standard premium of its Health Plus Private Prime rider for a 60-year-old policyholder is $4,402.50, whereas the premium for a Health Plus Public Lite policyholder of the same age can go as low as $326.25, which is around 92 per cent cheaper.<\/p>\n Ms Helen Shen, group head of products for Singlife, said that the company offers IPs and riders for policyholders with different needs, budgets and at different life stages.<\/p>\n \u201cThe products being phased out were designed under a previous framework, and with the new guidelines, it is important to align our riders to meet these standards,\u201d said Ms Shen.<\/p>\n Mr Eddy Cheong, chief executive officer of insurance advisory firm Havend, said it remains to be seen if insurers will eventually decide to move all existing policyholders to new riders.<\/p>\n Some insurers may want to allow existing policyholders who wanted coverage of the deductible riders to continue holding these policies.<\/p>\n However, this has to be balanced with achieving or maintaining a minimum number of policyholders to support the risk-pooling, which means collecting enough premiums from all policyholders to ensure adequate resources are available to pay off the medical bills incurred by those who need care, said Mr Cheong.<\/p>\n