the cap on using medisave should be raised to $1,000

a reader posed this feedback in one of the letters published today in the forum page of the straits times:

health care cover - "the cap on medisave should be raised to $1,000"

MR CHEN ZIWEI: 'In view of the rising health-care costs here, the $800 cap on using Medisave funds to buy a hospitalisation and surgery insurance plan should be raised to $1,000. Better still, scrap the cap because there are seniors who may have enough Medisave funds but insufficient cash to pay the premiums. Raising the cap will encourage more citizens to seek health insurance plans. Those with more cash in hand can use it to buy riders, which will boost their coverage.'

my comments:

me chen may be interested to know that although the cap on medisave being used to pay for premiums of private Medisave-approved Integrated Shield plans, is subjected to a withdrawal limit of $800 per policy, per year but for policyholders aged 81 and above, the withdrawal limit has been raised to $1,150 per policy, per year, since december 01, 2008 when the enhanced medishield plan was rolled out, albeit with an increase in premiums:

Age (NB) PAP CAP
< 30 30 33
31 – 40 40 54
41 - 50 80 114
51 – 60 160 225
61 – 65 225 332
66 – 70 265 372
71 – 73 335 390
74 – 75 375 462
76 – 78 420 524
79 – 80 510 615
81 – 83 600 1087
84 – 85 705 1123

Note: NB = Next Birthday/PAP = Previous Annual Premium/CAP = Current Annual Premium

as can be seen from the premium table, the higher withdrawal limit for seniors will fully fund the payment of premiums with the revised medisave withdrawal limit of $1,150.00 per policy, per year from age 81 onwards.