A Guide to assessing your Enhanced IncomeShield plan (October 2024 edition)

Read our updated Guide to Assessing your Enhanced IncomeShield plan [November 2025 edition] here

A brief recap on MediShield Life and the Integrated Shield (IP) plans offered by Income,

MediShield Life – A compulsory basic health insurance plan administered by the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board for all Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PRs) in Singapore.

Integrated Shield (IP) plans – IP plans are offered by seven private insurers and can be added on for treatment at higher class wards, or in private hospitals. As shared in our previous article “Is private hospital insurance really necessary?”, IP premiums will increase from 1 September 2024.

In this article, we do a comparison between Enhanced IncomeShield Preferred and Advantage plans to determine if it is worth paying for your Preferred plan or if you should downgrade from a private hospital to Class A ward IP plan.

What the different hospital ward classes mean:

Class A ward – Single bed, air-conditioned room with attached bathroom and television.

Class B1 ward – 4 to 5 bedder air-conditioned room with shared attached bathroom and television.

Class B2 ward – 6 bedder room with shared bathroom (bathroom may not be attached to room). Ward may be air-conditioned or fan ventilated.

#1 Difference in benefits between Enhanced IncomeShield Preferred and Advantage plans

What are the differences in benefits between the plans? Compare these five key differences between the Enhanced IncomeShield plans to determine if the higher-tier plan is worth the difference in premiums.

Annual policy limit and ward entitlement – The most notable difference between the Preferred and Advantage plan is the annual policy limit and ward entitlement benefit. With Enhanced IncomeShield Preferred, individuals have a $1,500,000 annual policy limit and a ward entitlement for private hospitals. This is compared to the annual policy limit of $500,000 and ward entitlement of Class A wards at public hospitals from Enhanced IncomeShield Advantage.

Pre and post-hospitalisation benefits (panel) – The pre and post-hospitalisation benefits for non-panel providers remain the same for both plans at 100 days before admission and after discharge.

However, if you were to seek treatment at panel providers, the Preferred plan covers up to 180 days before admission, and up to 365 days after discharge. This is higher than the Advantage plan which covers for 100 days before and after hospitalisation for both panel and non-panel providers.

[💡 Preferred plan rewards those who seek treatment at panel providers. However, if you are seeking treatment at non-panel providers, your pre and post hospitalisation benefits are the same for both Preferred and Advantage plans.]

Living donor organ transplant benefit – For Enhanced IncomeShield Preferred, the living donor organ transplant benefit gives up to $60,000 as charged coverage for cases where the insured is a living organ donor. In the event that the insured is the recipient of organ, Preferred plan offers a $60,000 benefit for the non-insured living organ donor’s inpatient hospital treatment. Necessary inpatient hospital treatment expenses for the non-insured living organ donor can be claimed from your policy, up to the policy limit of $60,000.

However, the Advantage plan only offers up to $40,000 as charged coverage if the insured is the living organ donor. No coverage is given for the non-insured living organ donor’s inpatient hospital treatment.

Inpatient psychiatric treatment benefit – Preferred plan’s benefit is as charged up to $20,000 as compared to Advantage plan’s benefit of as charged, up to $10,000.

Prothesis benefit – Preferred plan’s benefit is as charged up to $10,000 as compared to Advantage plan’s benefit of as charged, up to $60,000.

^{List of differences and similarities are for illustration purposes only. Please refer to your policy wording for more information. Information retrieved on 14 October 2024.}

#2 Premiums

1. Premiums for Preferred plan vs Advantage plan

Did you know that the difference in premiums between Enhanced IncomeShield Preferred and Enhanced IncomeShield Advantage can differ by up to 4 times? This difference in premiums is even greater if we were to add a rider to our IP plan.



2. Deluxe Care rider premiums are different

Other than the difference in premiums between the IP plans, premiums for Deluxe Care rider will also vary according to the IP plan that it is attached to.

Premiums for Deluxe Care rider are 3 to 5 times higher if attached to Enhanced IncomeShield Preferred as compared to when it is attached to Enhanced IncomeShield Advantage.



3. Advantage plan with Deluxe Care rider can be cheaper than a Preferred plan alone

While premiums may be affordable when we are younger, premiums can get increasingly expensive from age 60 onwards. For older individuals, premiums for a preferred plan alone can be more expensive than that of an Advantage plan with a Deluxe Care rider.

In the table below, we can see that at age 50, premiums for Advantage plan with a Deluxe Care rider is lower than that of just the Preferred plan alone.



If we were to compare between adding a Deluxe Care rider to both Preferred and Advantage plans, the difference in premiums are even more significant. Currently, premiums for a Preferred plan with Deluxe Care rider for an age 60 individual is priced at $5,259, as compared to $1,157 for an Advantage plan with Deluxe Care rider.

With the premiums varying greatly between the Preferred and Advantage plan, will you still opt for the Preferred plan, and is it still worth doing so?

#3 Are you better off downgrading your integrated shield plan and adding a rider instead?

As explained in our previous point, premiums for Advantage plan with Deluxe Care rider can be lower than that of just the Preferred plan alone. Moreover, by adding the rider you will also experience:

Less out-of-pocket expenses

Having just the Preferred or Advantage plan alone will require you to pay both a deductible and co-payment portion for each policy year. There is also no cap to the co-payment amount needed with just an IP plan.

However, the addition of a Deluxe Care rider not only removes the deductible payable but will also cap the co-payment amount needed for panel providers. This means that for a $100,000 medical bill, you may expect to pay an estimated $3,000 if you have a Deluxe Care rider added to your Advantage plan. This is a much lower out of pocket expense required as compared to the amount needed if you only have a Preferred or Advantage plan.

Higher Cancer treatment coverage with a rider

Having a Preferred or Advantage plan will give you a higher monthly benefit of up to 5 times the MediShield Limit for treatments on the Cancer Drug List (CDL). For treatments not on the CDL, there is no coverage given from MediShield Life and IP plans.

However, with the Deluxe Care rider, you can receive up to $15,000 each month for non-CDL treatments. For CDL treatments, the benefit limit is even higher with an additional 18 times benefit limit given from the Deluxe Care rider. This means that individuals can receive up to 23 times the MSHL monthly limit for treatments on the CDL if they have both an IP plan and Deluxe Care rider.

Our recommendation if you currently have an Enhanced IncomeShield Preferred plan:

If you are still able to afford the current premiums and are comfortable to continue paying them, then continue with your current plan as it is easier to downgrade than to upgrade your plan type in future should there be a need to do so.

If you are feeling the pinch from the rising premiums and are thinking of reviewing your hospitalisation coverage, we suggest downgrading to an Advantage plan but adding or keeping the Deluxe Care rider. This is because we feel that while the difference in coverage does not justify the higher premiums of the Preferred plan, the premiums needed to add a Deluxe Care rider to your Advantage plan is reasonable considering the additional coverage it offers.

While the Enhanced IncomeShield Advantage covers for treatments at public hospitals, this Class A ward entitlement allows you to receive treatment in a single bed, air-conditioned room. Adding the Deluxe Care rider will also cap your co-payment needed if you were to visit panel or extended panel providers. This rider will also remove your required deductible allowing you to pay less out-of-pocket expenses. The deluxe care rider also significantly increases your cancer coverage by offering additional 18 times the MSHL limit for CDL treatments, and giving non-CDL treatments coverage as well.

Have a question?

If you would like to review or downgrade your Enhanced IncomeShield plan, or seek a second opinion on your hospitalisation coverage:

Click here to contact us for a complimentary review

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^{Information obtained from:}

^{https://www.income.com.sg/kcassets/14cdc6dc-b331-4ffd-b899-d4ff90142548/Final%20Enhanced%20IncomeShield%20policy%20conditions%201%20Sep%202024.pdf}

^{https://www.income.com.sg/kcassets/57771d4e-8109-4258-b37c-106664279ad6/Premium%20Table%20EIS.pdf}

^{https://www.income.com.sg/kcassets/5601109f-8046-48a7-9f5e-0ab25c202886/Premium%20Table%20Deluxe%20Rider%20EIS.pdf}

^{https://www.moh.gov.sg/home/our-healthcare-system/medishield-life/what-is-medishield-life/what-medishield-life-benefits}

^{Information retrieved on 14 October 2024.}

^Disclaimer:

^{^Only the transfer in of Enhanced IncomeShield Basic, Enhanced IncomeShield Advantage, and Enhanced IncomeShield Preferred are eligible for commission rebates. Commission rebates will only be given on the cash portion of premiums paid. More information on commission rebates can be found here.}

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