Hello. What's the diff between the various hospitalisation plans and integrated shield plans?

There are two kinds of health insurance plans in Singapore. The first is known as MediShield Life, which is a basic, life-long health insurance policy that covers all Singaporean Citizens and Permanent Residents. It is designed to help you pay for any large hospitalization costs.

However, it only covers treatment in B2/C class hospitals in Singapore. Moreover, it will pay for a small part of your bill, leaving the rest for you to cover. If you want more coverage, you can opt for an additional layer of health insurance known as an integrated shield plan. This plan complements your MediShield Life by offering a wide choice of private and restructured hospitals, ward classes, and doctors. Moreover, these plans can offer to cover as much as 95% of your medical expenses, leaving you to pay only a tiny amount out of your own pocket.

There are around 9 companies that offer Integrated Shield Plans; they include Prudential, AIA, AXA, Aviva, Raffles, etc. While all of the Integrated Shield Plans function in a similar manner, they will provide different benefits.

For example, some will provide coverage of S$ 1 million in a policy year, while others will provide S$ 1.2 million or more. Some will not cover pre- & post-hospitalization while others will, up to 180 & 365 days before & after hospitalization in some cases. With some plans, you can enjoy coverage for overseas medical treatments, while with others, you do not. All these plans will also offer riders that help boost the coverage of your plan. And all this can make choosing the right IP a little tricky. But you don’t need to worry – once you know what you want from a plan, choosing from the various options is easy.

If you need further assistance in choosing the right IP, this 2-minute read should help significantly: https://ello.co/zianaroy44/post/pzqih4uy-riuqi5...​​​

If I have to say it simply, there is not much difference betweem the plans.

But If i were to expand it, there is HELL lot of difference in the coverage for the plans.

Why is it this way? Each hospitalisation plans have unique selling features (Which is not a dealbreaker), unless you wish to get the coverage. (proton treatment?, final expense, limit for each treatment, private hospitalisation interpretation, hospice? etc etc).

There is no simple answer to this simple question if you ask me. Do not believe? See the chart i posted in linkedin.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/almost-complete-...