Are IP riders worth the premiums you pay?

In our previous articles, we recommended adding IP riders to enhance your hospitalisation coverage and provide more comprehensive protection against medical bills. However, with the IP riders that were designed to reduce co-insurance and deductibles now taking up on average 48% of your total MediShield Life and Integrated Shield Plan premiums, we take a closer look at whether the additional coverage offered justify the higher premiums paid.

On 26 November 2025, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has announced new requirements for Integrated Shield Plan riders. Under these changes, new IP riders will no longer cover the minimum Integrated Shield Plan deductibles. 

Here is what we know about the changes:

• Insurers must launch new IP riders no later than 1 April 2026. These new riders will not cover the minimum IP deductibles set by MOH. The exact effective dates may vary by insurer.
• Individuals may still purchase existing IP riders from 27 November 2025 to 31 March 2026 but will have to transit to the new riders no later than the next policy renewal after 1 April 2028.
• Current IP riders cap co-payment at panel providers to $3,000 a year. This will increase to $6,000 per year and this co-payment will be required in addition to the minimum IP deductibles. Premiums for the new IP rider are expected to be 30% lower than existing riders with maximum coverage.

How having an IP rider affects your hospital claims:

If you currently have an Integrated Shield Plan rider, read the rest of our article below to understand what your rider covers and whether you should make any adjustments to your shield plans.

📚 Read our previous articles on shield plans here:

Understanding MediShield Life, Integrated Shield Plans and Integrated Shield plan riders

• MediShield Life (MSHL) – MediShield Life is a mandatory basic health insurance scheme administered by the CPF Board. It offers universal coverage for Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs), protecting them against large medical bills and selected outpatient treatments.
• Integrated Shield Plan (IP) – Integrated Shield Plans are optional hospital insurance plans offered by seven private insurers. IPs aim to supplement MediShield Life by offering higher coverage limits, access to private hospital, and more ward choices.  To check whether you already have an IP plan, log in to the CPF website and head to your Healthcare dashboard to see your policy details.
• Integrated Shield plan riders (IP rider) – IP riders are optional add-ons designed to cover a portion of the deductible and co-insurance payable for your IP plan. Riders may also enhance cancer drug list (CDL) limits and cover for additional treatments that are not covered by MediShield Life and IPs.

1.     Premiums for IP riders

For private hospital cover with the addition of a rider with 5% co-payment benefit

Information retrieved on 24 November 2025. For illustration purposes only.

One of the main benefits of IP riders is the removal of the 10% co-insurance and deductible required and instead replacing this with a 5% co-payment that is capped at $3,000 per policy year. However, as shown in the table above, premiums for these riders can make up a significant portion of your total premiums (MediShield Life + Integrated Shield Plan + IP rider). In addition, these premiums are not fixed and will increase with each policy renewal. It thus raises an important question: at which point does your premium exceed the amount that the rider covers for, and is the IP rider still a good addition at that stage?

2.     Co-insurance and deductible covered by IP riders

(Source for typical bill size: MOH website)

As premiums increase with age, there may come a point where the coverage provided by your IP rider is lower in value than the premiums you are paying. For example, as shown in the table above, the typical inpatient bill for a knee replacement procedure at a private hospital is $43,138. The deductible and co-insurance required can be calculated as:

• Deductible: $3,500
• Co-insurance: 10% x remainder ($43,138 - $3,500) = $3,963.80
• Total Deductible and Co-insurance required by claimant: $7,463.80

An addition of a rider could reduce this amount payable by claimant to 5% of total hospital bill.

• 5% of $43,138 = $2,156.90

The amount covered by the IP rider is therefore the difference payable between both amounts: $5,306.90.

Next, let us look at the payable premiums for this IP rider. At younger ages, the rider’s premiums are typically lower than the amount it covers, thus making it a worthwhile addition. However, at an older age band, premiums will rise and may eventually exceed the value of the coverage provided. When this happens, individuals may start to question whether keeping an IP rider remains a sensible choice.

*Note: IP riders vary in their coverage across Income, Singlife, and Raffles Health Insurance. For example, Raffles’ Key Rider reduces the deductible and co-insurance to a 5% co-payment but offers different cancer coverage as compared to the riders offered by Income and Singlife.

3.     Cancer coverage

IP riders offer various levels of coverage across the different insurers. For easier comparison, we focus only on the IP riders that enhance MediShield Life cancer coverage.

As shown in the table above, MediShield Life provides between $200 to $9,600 per month for treatments covered under the Cancer Drug List (CDL). The actual amount payable is dependent on the cancer drug treatment given.

With an integrated shield plan, this claimable limit increases to 5 times the MediShield Life benefit. The addition of an IP rider further increases this, giving the insured up to 18 times the MediShield Life limit and an overall coverage of up to 23 times of the MediShield Life limit. This means that you could receive $4,600 to $220,800 per month for cancer drug coverage instead of the default MediShield Life limit of $200 to $9,600.

Additionally, while the Cancer Drug Services benefit can be used for cancer treatments that are not on the CDL, this is capped at $3,600 per year under MediShield Life. Having an IP rider will significantly increase this limit to $15,000 per month or $250,000 per year for non-CDL treatments for one primary cancer.

Our Recommendation

• For Income Shield plans, consider switching from the Deluxe Care rider to the Classic Care rider as you get older and experience higher premiums.

Both riders offer similar benefits with the main difference being the co-payment percentage required. The Classic Care rider requires a 10% co-payment, while the Deluxe Care rider reduces this to 5%. While a switch from Deluxe Care rider to Classic Care rider will require a higher co-payment percentage, this co-payment is capped at $3,000 per year for treatment received from panel providers. All other IP rider benefits remain the same for both riders, thus allowing you to enjoy similar coverage with lower premiums with a Classic Care rider.

Read our article A Guide to Assessing Your Enhanced IncomeShield Plan [November 2025 Edition] to find out if your plan is right for you.

• For Raffles Health Insurance Shield plans, premiums remain relatively affordable due to the lack of recent premium revisions.

The Raffles Shield plans separate additional cancer coverage and the reduction of co-insurance and deductibles into two separate riders: Raffles Cancer Guard rider and Key rider. This allows you the flexibility to tailor your coverage based on the premiums that you are comfortable to pay.

Choose the Key Rider if you would like to replace your co-insurance and deductible with a 5% co-payment (capped at $3,000 per year for pre-authorised panel treatment) and increase your annual limit for non-CDL treatments to $5,000. Alternatively, opt for the Raffles Cancer Guard rider to enhance your CDL and non-CDL claim limits.

• For Singlife Shield plans, consider switching from the Prime rider to the Lite rider as you get older and experience higher premiums.

Both riders reduce the co-payment to 5% and offer similar benefits with the notable difference being the annual deductible required. Private Prime reduces the annual deductible to $0 for A&E or preferred providers whereas the usual annual deductible will apply for Private Lite rider. All other IP rider benefits remain the same for both riders, thus allowing you to enjoy similar coverage at a potentially lower premium with a Private/Public Lite rider.

In conclusion, IP riders exist not only to replace your co-insurance and deductible with a lower 5% co-payment, but also to enhance cancer coverage. Therefore, we recommend maintaining your IP rider to receive higher coverage limits for both CDL and non-CDL cancer treatments and making the adjustments only when necessary.

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Information obtained from:
https://www.moh.gov.sg/managing-expenses/bills-and-fee-benchmarks/cost-financing/tosp-sb810k-bill-information/

https://www.moh.gov.sg/managing-expenses/schemes-and-subsidies/medishield-life/medishield-life-benefits/#Cancer-Drug-List

https://www.income.com.sg/health-insurance/enhanced-incomeshield

https://www.raffleshealthinsurance.com/products/raffles-shield/learn-more/raffles-shield-plans/

https://singlife.com/en/medical-insurance/shield

https://www.moh.gov.sg/newsroom/new-requirements-for-integrated-shield-plan-riders-to-strengthen-sustainability-of-private-health-insurance-and-address-rising-healthcare-costs/

Information retrieved 26 November 2025.

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