10 Nov 2023

SOURCE: CPF Board

Healthcare planning is important, as being unprepared when the unexpected happens can have severe consequences. However, it’s difficult to properly gauge how much is sufficient, and most of us are already having a challenging time balancing current needs and future savings. Fret not, because here are three helpful calculator and resources that can help lessen the workload and unpredictability when planning for your healthcare finances.

1)   MediSave and MediShield Life claims calculator

MediSave is your personal healthcare savings account, which helps you pay for your healthcare expenses throughout your lifetime. Your MediSave can also be used for medical expenses of your family members such as your spouse, children, parents, grandparents and siblings.

MediShield Life, on the other hand, is a health insurance scheme which provides lifelong coverage for large hospital bills and selected outpatient treatment bills such as cancer drugs and kidney dialysis. Similar to MediSave, MediShield Life covers all Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents. With MediShield Life, you can reduce your out-of-pocket expenses for hospital bills and medical treatments.

• MediSave and MediShield Life cover part of your healthcare expenses, and knowing how much you can claim is important to plan your finances. The MediSave and MediShield Life claims calculator is a tool that, as its name suggests, assists you in estimating how much you can claim from MediShield Life and/or withdraw from your MediSave for your hospital bills and medical treatments. The exact amount of claim will depend on terms and conditions such as claimable limits, deductible and exclusion list. To use the MediSave and MediShield Life claims calculator, the following information will be required:

            - type of medical treatment

            - type of medical institution

            - details of your hospitalisation (if applicable)

2)   CareShield Life

Severe disabilities will affect one’s finances as costs of long-term care can accumulate and balloon over time.

CareShield Life is a long-term care insurance scheme that offers financial support via monthly cash payouts should you develop severe disability. If you were born in 1980 or after, you are automatically covered by CareShield Life from 1 October 2020 or once you turn 30, whichever is later. If you were born in 1979 or earlier, your participation in CareShield Life is optional. You may apply to join CareShield Life by logging in with your Singpass.

Members who are assessed by a MOH-accredited severe disability assessor to be unable to perform three or more activities of daily living, namely washing, dressing, feeding, toileting, mobility, and transferring (from bed to a chair or wheelchair, and vice versa), will be eligible to receive CareShield Life payouts.

Once you have completed paying all your premiums at age 67 (or 10 years after you join, whichever is later), you will be covered for life. Your monthly payouts will increase annually until age 67 or when a successful claim is made, whichever is earlier. Following a successful claim, payouts remain fixed for the duration of your severe disability.

You may visit the CareShield Life page to find out more about CareShield Life, including the eligibility criteria and how to make a claim.

3)   e-Cashier form

Your MediSave can help you pay for a variety of medical expenses, including but not limited to hospitalisation, outpatient treatments, and long-term care such as rehabilitation and palliative care. It can also be used to pay for MediShield Life and CareShield Life/ElderShield Life premiums. Thus, it is important to ensure that you have enough savings in your MediSave account.

Should you feel that the savings in your MediSave Account are insufficient, you have the option of making cash top-ups. These top-ups build your MediSave savings at a faster rate with 4% compound interest, and more importantly, can be used to pay for your medical expenses and healthcare insurance premiums, and those of your loved ones. You can also top up your dependants’ MediSave Accounts, should they require it.

The e-Cashier form allows you to make such payments conveniently to the Board, be it as a member or as a self-employed person. If you ever need to make a top-up to your own account or to your loved ones’ account, you can fill up this form to do just that!

Caring for your health is certainly worth preparing well for, especially when it can impact the other aspects of your life, such as retirement and your family. The myriad of calculator and resources out there can be difficult to manage, but we have 3 easy ones on the CPF website to help you with your first step!

The information provided in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.