Raffles Shield - Best Medical Insurance Plan in Singapore

New/ Enhanced Benefits

In keeping up to date with medical advancements and to provide you with a more comprehensive cover, Raffles Health Insurance (RHI) will be enhancing the following benefits to our Raffles Shield Private, A, B and Standard plans:

Revised Policy Benefits for Cancer Drug Treatment

As mentioned in the previous customer letter sent in December 2022, Your Policy’s Outpatient Chemotherapy benefit and Outpatient Immunotherapy benefit will be replaced with a new Outpatient Cancer Drug Treatment benefit and Outpatient Cancer Drug Services benefit upon renewal of your policy on or after 1 April 2023.

• Outpatient Cancer Drug Treatment benefit – Only cancer drug treatments on the CDL will be claimable under your Policy, up to the treatment-specific claim limits. Selected cancer drug treatments beyond the CDL (drug classes A, B and C1) will be claimable under riders. If you are currently undergoing cancer drug treatment, please consult your doctor early on whether your treatment is on the CDL.
• Outpatient Cancer Drug Services benefit – Services that are part of a cancer drug treatment (including treatments not on the CDL), such as consultations, scans, lab investigations, treatment preparation and administration, supportive care drugs and blood transfusions, will be claimable under the Outpatient Cancer Drug Services benefit, up to specified claims limits.

Cancer Drug Services incurred before the cancer is diagnosed, after the cancer has gone into remission, or once the course of treatment has ceased, will not be covered.

Premium Adjustment for Raffles Key Rider and Premier Rider

Due to medical inflation and that Raffles Shield premiums have remained unchanged since the launch of the product in 2018, there will be an upward revision of 15% for Raffles Key Rider and Premier Rider premium rates.

Please refer to the premium tables in the Raffles Shield Product Summary.

Updates to policy exclusions

We will be lifting the exclusion under Raffles Shield Standard Plan for (i) suicide, attempted suicide or intentional self-injury and (ii) drug addiction or alcoholism (except for controlled drugs listed under the Misuse of Drugs Act (Cap. 185) for admissions from 1 April 2023. This will be reflected in the exclusions in the revised Raffles Shield policy conditions.

Please refer to the summary of policy wording changes for the full list of policy wording changes.  

To ensure greater affordability of cancer treatments and the long-term sustainability of premiums, MOH has developed a Cancer Drug List (CDL) comprising clinically proven and more cost-effective cancer treatments. 

From 1 September 2022, MediShield Life (MSHL) and MediSave (MSV) will only cover treatments on the CDL. For all Integrated Shield Plans (IP), the CDL will take effect from 1 April 2023, upon the renewal of your policy. Policyholders with riders can claim for selected outpatient cancer drug treatments beyond the CDL. These changes were announced by MOH on 17 August 2021 (https://www.moh.gov.sg/news-highlights/details/government-enhances-subsidies-to-improve-affordability-of-cancer-treatment_17Aug2021) and recapped in a press release on 2 September 2022 (https://www.moh.gov.sg/news-highlights/details/transitional-support-for-cancer-patients).

You can go to https://go.gov.sg/moh-cancerdruglist to view the latest version of the CDL. The CDL currently covers most cancer drug treatments approved by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA). MOH will update it every few months to keep up with medical advancements and the latest clinical evidence.

Key Changes

1) Revised Policy Benefits for Cancer Drug Treatment

Your policy’s Outpatient Chemotherapy benefit and Outpatient Immunotherapy benefit will be replaced with a new Outpatient Cancer Drug Treatment benefit and Outpatient Cancer Drug Services benefit upon renewal of your policy on or after 1 April 2023.

• Outpatient Cancer Drug Treatment benefit – Only cancer drug treatments on the CDL will be claimable under your Policy, up to the treatment-specific claim limits. Selected cancer drug treatments beyond the CDL (drug classes A, B and C[1]) will be claimable under riders. If you are currently undergoing cancer drug treatment, please consult your doctor early on whether your treatment is on the CDL. 

• Outpatient Cancer Drug Services benefit – Services that are part of a cancer drug treatment (including treatments not on the CDL), such as consultations, scans, lab investigations, treatment preparation and administration, supportive care drugs and blood transfusions, will be claimable under the Outpatient Cancer Drug Services benefit, up to specified claims limits.

From 1 April 2023 onwards, Raffles Health Insurance will be implementing the above changes to the Outpatient Chemotherapy benefit and Outpatient Immunotherapy benefit to your Raffles Shield Policies and Riders upon your policy renewal, where applicable.

Click here to view the IP and rider claim limits and coverage under each of the above benefits

2) No change in Raffles Shield Base* Plans Premium.

To better support policyholders through these changes, we will not increase your Raffles Shield Base* Plans premiums (excluding GST revisions) from 2 September 2022 to 31 August 2024. This does not apply to premiums of IP riders. Premium increases when you move to higher age bands will continue to apply.

3) Transitional Support for Patients undergoing Cancer Drug Treatment.

To allow sufficient time for affected individuals to adjust to the changes, customers on a course of cancer drug treatment as of 31 March 2023[2] and whose policies are renewing between 1 April 2023 and 30 September 2023 will continue to receive their current coverage until 30 September 2023. Thereafter, these customers will not be able to make IP claims for any treatments not on the CDL, and their claims for CDL treatments will be subject to the revised limits. Customers whose policy renewals are between 1 October 2023 and 31 March 2024 will see no change to their IP coverage until their policy renewal.

Customers who are undergoing treatments not listed on the CDL may wish to discuss with their doctors whether there are suitable alternative treatments on the CDL. However, if switching to a CDL treatment is not feasible, there is support available for those facing difficulties affording treatment.

• If you are a subsidised patient, you can approach a Medical Social Worker (MSW) in your public healthcare institution (PHI) for financial assistance such as MediFund.

• If you are a non-subsidised patient in a PHI or a patient in a private medical institution, you can approach your doctor to refer you to subsidised care in a PHI, where financial assistance may be available. The PHI’s medical team will review your treatment plan and provide financial counselling (e.g., eligibility for subsidies) before you decide whether to proceed with the transfer.

[1] Refer to the Appendix for more details.

[2] Where at least one IP claim is made for an outpatient or inpatient cancer drug treatment administered between 1 January 2023 to 31 March 2023.

*Base Plans refers to Raffles Shield Private Plan/ A+ RH/ A/ B/ Standard Plan.

To view a sample of our customer notification letter, click here.

 For the updated Raffles Shield premium rates, please click here.

Since 1 March 2021, the benefits for MediShield Life (MSHL) have been enhanced. MediShield Life premiums will see an increase to keep pace with rising healthcare costs. As an Integrated Shield plan’s premium comprises of MediShield Life and a private insurance portion, while there will be no changes to the premiums for the Raffles Shield (private insurance) component, there will be an increase in total premiums for Raffles Shield plan(s).

Your premiums are used to pay for commissions, claims and other expenses involved in administering your policy*.

The cost of claims would change depending on the claim size and number of claims submitted by policyholders. In the past 3 years, the average bill size average bill size had decreased by 22%² and increased by 32% in the public and private healthcare institutions respectively. The number of claims submitted per policyholder had also increased by 150%².

*Based on all long-term accident and health plans, including IPs and riders

Note

1. As Raffles Shield was launched in 2018, Raffles Health Insurance’s expenses includes set up as well as operational costs. As a result, this leads to high expense ratio in its early years. This is within the company’s expectation and the ratio will decrease as the portfolio grows.
2. RHI only had less than 20 public healthcare institutions claims cases and private healthcare institutions claim cases respectively in 2019.
3. All the figures are gross figures.