Press Releases
Keeping Healthcare Affordable and Sustainable for All
7 March 2025
Our ageing population is expected to drive an increase in care needs and utilisation of long-term care services. The Ministry of Health (MOH) will continue to review and enhance our financing schemes to ensure that healthcare and long-term care remain affordable and sustainable for all.
Improving Healthcare Affordability for Outpatient Treatments
2. As healthcare needs tend to grow in old age, MediSave withdrawal limits are carefully set to ensure Singaporeans have sufficient savings to pay for healthcare expenses in their later years.
3. Today, all Singaporeans can use up to $300 from their MediSave annually to pay for outpatient scans such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans and Computerised Tomography (CT) scans. Singaporeans aged 60 and above can also use up to $300 from their MediSave annually under the Flexi-MediSave scheme to pay for outpatient medical treatments at Specialist Outpatient Clinics, polyclinics, and General Practitioner (GP) clinics under the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS).
4. To support patients to pay for their outpatient bills, MOH will raise the following withdrawal limits:
a) MediSave outpatient scans annual limit will be doubled from $300 to $600 from 1 January 2026; and
b) Flexi-MediSave annual withdrawal limit will be increased from $300 to $400 from 1 October 2025.
5. These enhancements will potentially benefit over 500,000 patients who use MediSave annually for their outpatient scans, and around 700,000 patients who tap on Flexi-MediSave annually for their outpatient medical treatments.
Strengthening Support for Oral Health
6. Oral health is an integral part of overall health and wellbeing. However, only 56% of people aged 55 and above in Singapore have 20 or more natural teeth. Therefore we will improve support for preventive dental care to maintain good oral health, including in old age, as well as for restorative dental procedures to restore functionality and prevent further deterioration of oral health.
7. Today, Singaporeans have access to subsidised dental services across public healthcare institutions as well as over 900 private dental clinics under CHAS. To ensure that dental care remains affordable, MOH will progressively implement the following enhancements from the fourth quarter of 2025:
a) Extend CHAS subsidy of up to $45.50 for ten basic and preventive dental procedures (such as scaling and polishing) to CHAS Orange cardholders.
b) Raise subsidy limits significantly for seven restorative dental procedures (such as root canal treatment) for Pioneer Generation (PG), Merdeka Generation (MG), CHAS Blue and CHAS Orange cardholders.
c) Extend use of Flexi-MediSave (to be revised to $400 annually) for root canal treatments and permanent crowns at CHAS dental clinics and public healthcare institutions in mid-2026.
d) Fee benchmarks will be introduced for common dental procedures to promote transparency of dental fees, and ensure that enhanced subsidies translate to lower out-of-pocket costs for patients.
8. The revised subsidy caps, reflecting the above enhancements, are detailed in Table 1 and Table 2.
Table 1: CHAS Subsidies for Basic and Preventive Dental Procedures
Dental Services | Maximum Subsidy Amount per claim ($) | |||
PG* | MG* | CHAS Blue* | [NEW] CHAS Orange | |
Consultation | 30.50 | 25.50 | 20.50 | 13.50 |
Polishing | 30.50 | 25.50 | 20.50 | 13.50 |
Scaling | 40.00 | 35.00 | 30.00 | 20.00 |
Topical Fluoride | 30.50 | 25.50 | 20.50 | 13.50 |
X-Ray | 21.00 | 16.00 | 11.00 | 7.50 |
Extraction, Anterior | 38.50 | 33.50 | 28.50 | 19.00 |
Extraction, Posterior | 78.50 | 73.50 | 68.50 | 45.50 |
Filling, Complex | 60.00 | 55.00 | 50.00 | 33.50 |
Filling, Simple | 40.00 | 35.00 | 30.00 | 20.00 |
Re-cementation | 45.00 | 40.00 | 35.00 | 23.50 |
*The existing claim limits for PG, MG and CHAS Blue cardholders remain unchanged.
Table 2: Changes to CHAS Subsidies for Restorative Procedures
Dental Services | Maximum Subsidy Amount per claim ($) | |||
PG | MG | CHAS Blue | CHAS Orange | |
Denture Reline/Repair [no change] | [no change] 85.00 | [no change] 80.00 | [no change] 75.00 | [no change] 50.00 |
Permanent Crown | From $137.50 to $625.00 | From $132.50 to $620.00 | From $127.50 to $615.00 | From $84.50 to $410.00 |
Removable Denture, Complete | From $266.50 to $418.50 | From $261.50 to $413.50 | From $256.50 to $408.50 | From $170.50 to $272.50 |
Removable Denture, Partial, Complex | From $220.00 to $395.50 | From $215.00 to $390.50 | From $210.00 to $385.50 | From $140.00 to $257.00 |
Removable Denture, Partial, Simple | From $108.00 to $314.00 | From $103.00 to $309.00 | From $98.00 to $304.00 | From $65.50 to $202.50 |
Root Canal Treatment (Anterior) | From $174.00 to $336.00 | From $169.00 to $331.00 | From $164.00 to $326.00 | From $109.50 to $217.50 |
Root Canal Treatment (Molar) | From $266.50 to $594.50 | From $261.50 to $589.50 | From $256.50 to $584.50 | From $170.50 to $389.50 |
Root Canal Treatment (Pre-molar) | From $220.00 to $472.50 | From $215.00 to $467.50 | From $210.00 to $462.50 | From $140.00 to $308.50 |
9. With these enhanced subsidies, a CHAS Orange cardholder will pay approximately $560 for a root canal treatment that costs $950. Assuming the patient is able to use $400 from his Flexi-MediSave for this treatment, his out-of-pocket payment can be further lowered to $160.
10. The extension of CHAS dental subsidies will be implemented along with the introduction of fee benchmarks in the fourth quarter of 2025. Up to 1.7 million CHAS cardholders will benefit from the subsidy enhancements. The expansion of Flexi-MediSave will be implemented in mid-2026 and will benefit patients aged 60 and above.
Improving Support and Affordability of Long-Term Care
11. With an ageing population, more elderly will need long-term care in the form of nursing home care and home and community care services.
12. The government provides financing support to ensure that our elderly can afford long-term care, including:
a) Means-tested subsidies for long-term care services;
b) Home Caregiving Grant (HCG) to offset informal caregiving costs, and the Seniors’ Mobility and Enabling Fund (SMF) for devices and home healthcare items, for those receiving care in the community; and
c) CareShield Life, our national long-term care insurance, which provides monthly cash payouts to those with severe disability. However, current elderly cohorts (especially those born in 1969 or earlier) are not as well covered by CareShield Life as it was offered on an opt-in basis.
Subsidies for Long-Term Care Services
13. As announced in Budget 2025, we will enhance subsidies for long-term care:
a) Increase long-term care service subsidies by up to 15 percentage points to a maximum of 80%
i. More to benefit from maximum subsidy (up to $1,500 in monthly per capita household income (PCHI) instead of up to $900 today);
b) Raise the monthly PCHI eligibility threshold for long-term care service subsidies from $3,600 to $4,800 to benefit more households; and
c) Introduce additional cohort subsidies of 5 percentage points for residential long-term care and 15 percentage points for home and community long-term care
i. For seniors born in 1969 or earlier, who are not as well covered by CareShield Life.
Table 3: Revised Residential Long-Term Care Subsidy Framework
Monthly PCHI | Current Subsidy | Revised Subsidy | ||||
Singapore Citizen | Permanent Resident | Singapore Citizen | Permanent Resident | |||
Born in 1969 or earlier | Born after 1969 | |||||
PCHI = $0 | Annual Value (AV) ≤ $21k | 75% | 50% | 80% | 75% | 50% |
AV > $21k | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | |
$900 and below | 75% | 50% | 80% | 75% | 50% | |
$901 to $1,500 | 60% | 40% | ||||
$1,501 to $2,300 | 50% | 30% | 65% | 60% | 40% | |
$2,301 to $2,600 | 40% | 20% | 55% | 50% | 30% | |
$2,601 to $3,600 | 20% | 10% | 35% | 30% | 15% | |
$3,601 to $4,800 | 0% | 0% | 15% | 10% | 5% | |
$4,801 and above | 0% | 0% | 0% | |||
Note: Residential long-term care services include Nursing Home, Nursing Home Respite Care, Chronic Sick, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Home and Psychiatric Sheltered Home services.
Table 4: Revised Non-Residential (Home and Community) Long-Term Care Subsidy Framework
Monthly PCHI | Current Subsidy | Revised Subsidy | ||||
Singapore Citizen | Permanent Resident | Singapore Citizen | Permanent Resident | |||
Born in 1969 or earlier | Born after 1969 | |||||
PCHI = $0 | Annual Value (AV) ≤ $21k | 80% | 55% | 95% | 80% | 55% |
AV > $21k | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | |
$900 and below | 80% | 55% | 95% | 80% | 55% | |
$901 to $1,500 | 75% | 50% | ||||
$1,501 to $2,300 | 60% | 40% | 85% | 70% | 45% | |
$2,301 to $2,600 | 50% | 30% | 75% | 60% | 35% | |
$2,601 to $3,600 | 30% | 15% | 55% | 40% | 20% | |
$3,601 to $4,800 | 0% | 0% | 35% | 20% | 10% | |
$4,801 and above | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | |
Note: Non-Residential (Home and Community) long-term care services include active rehabilitation, centre-based nursing, dementia day care, home medical, home nursing, home personal care, home therapy, maintenance day care, maintenance exercise, Meals on Wheels, medical escort and transport and psychiatric day rehabilitation services.
14. The enhanced subsidies will take effect from July 20261. To help Singaporean households with long-term care costs in the interim, we will provide one-off fee rebates for MOH-subsidised long-term care services between July 2025 and June 2026.
15. The enhanced subsidies and rebates will have varied impact on the out-of-pocket payments for long-term care clients.
16. For nursing homes, fees were recently revised upwards significantly in 2024, to keep up with cost increases. To manage the impact on affordability, MOH worked with providers to cap increases in out-of-pocket payments for existing nursing home residents who were admitted before these fee increases. This means providers have been providing temporary discounts to suppress the out-of-pocket payments for existing residents despite rising costs. However, providers cannot sustain these discounts indefinitely, and these residents will see a large jump in out-of-pocket payments when discounts are withdrawn eventually. We will work closely with providers to manage the fees payable for existing residents, taking into consideration their current discounts, the one-off fee rebate in 2025 and subsidy enhancements in 2026. In the long run, their fees should catch up to those for newer residents.
17. Nursing home residents who were admitted after the fee increases already pay a higher, undiscounted out-of-pocket payments today. The rebates and subsidy enhancements will reduce out-of-pocket payments for this group.
18. For home and community care, all Singaporeans will see a reduction in out-of-pocket payments from the enhanced subsidies and rebates.
19. The enhancements will benefit approximately 80,000 individuals currently receiving MOH-funded long-term care services.
Support for Care in the Home/ Community
20. To further defray the costs of caregiving for those receiving care in the community, we will enhance the HCG and SMF.
21. Today, the HCG provides a means-tested monthly payout of up to $400 to support families who are looking after their loved ones requiring assistance with three or more Activities of Daily Living, and with a monthly PCHI of up to $3,600. We will:
a) Enhance the HCG quantum to up to $600 from April 2026; and
b) Expand the coverage to households with a monthly PCHI between $3,600 and $4,800, so that more caregivers receive support.
Table 5: Current and Revised Monthly Payouts for HCG
Monthly PCHI | Current Monthly Payout | Revised Monthly Payout | |||
Singapore Citizen | Permanent Resident | Singapore Citizen | Permanent Resident | ||
PCHI = $0 | AV ≤ $21k | $400 | $400 | $600 | $600 |
AV > $21k | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | |
$1,500 and below | $400 | $400 | $600 | $600 | |
$1,501 to $3,600 | $250 | $250 | $400 | $400 | |
$3,601 to $4,800 | $0 | $0 | $200 | $200 | |
$4,801 and above | $0 | $0 | |||
Notes on HCG:
• Only Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents with an immediate family member (i.e., parent, spouse, or child) who is a Singapore Citizen are eligible.
• New applicants with multiple properties will receive the lowest payout (i.e. monthly payouts of $200), if they fulfil other criteria.
22. The SMF provides means-tested subsidies for selected home healthcare items and devices for seniors receiving care in the community to defray the costs of caregiving. We will enhance SMF subsidies to strengthen support for seniors to age in place. This includes raising the monthly PCHI eligibility threshold for SMF to $4,800, and extending SMF coverage to include Permanent Residents.
Table 6: Current and Revised Subsidy Framework for SMF Devices
Monthly PCHI | Current Subsidy | Revised Subsidy | ||
Singapore Citizen | Singapore Citizen | Permanent Resident | ||
PCHI = $0 | AV ≤ $21k | 90% | 90% | 60% |
AV > $21k | 0% | 0% | 0% | |
$1,500 and below | 90% | 90% | 60% | |
$1,501 to $2,600 | 75% | 75% | 50% | |
$2,601 to $3,600 | 0% | 40% | 20% | |
$3,601 to $4,800 | 20% | 10% | ||
$4,801 and above | 0% | 0% | ||
Table 7: Current and Revised Subsidy Framework for SMF Home Healthcare Items
Monthly PCHI | Current Subsidy | Revised Subsidy | ||
Singapore Citizen | Singapore Citizen | Permanent Resident | ||
PCHI = $0 | AV ≤ $21k | 80% | 80% | 55% |
AV > $21k | 0% | 0% | 0% | |
$900 and below | 80% | 80% | 55% | |
$901 to $1,500 | 50% | |||
$1,501 to $2,300 | 70% | 45% | ||
$2,301 to $2,600 | 60% | 35% | ||
$2,601 to $3,600 | 0% | 40% | 20% | |
$3,601 to $4,800 | 20% | 10% | ||
$4,801 and above | 0% | 0% | ||
23. MOH will also expand the coverage of SMF-subsidised home healthcare items, to support seniors with more care needs. Table 8 shows the expanded home healthcare items coverage.
Table 8: Current and Expanded Coverage for SMF Home Healthcare Item Types
Items currently covered | New Items to be covered |
Catheters and catheter set | Syringe with no needle |
Nasogastric tubes and pH test strips | Underpads |
Milk feeds | Urine bags |
Thickeners | Urine bag hanger |
Nasal tubing | Stoma paste/strip/ring |
Diapers | Stoma baseplate/wafer/barrier |
Dressings | Elastic tape for baseplate/wafer/barrier |
Brava/Stomahesive powder | |
Lubricating deodorant | |
Stoma bag | |
Stoma bag closure clamp |
24. The enhancements to SMF devices subsidies will take effect from January 2026 and enhancements to SMF subsidies for home healthcare items will take effect from April 2026. The enhancements will benefit approximately 51,000 individuals under HCG, and 38,000 individuals under SMF.
CareShield Life
25. In the longer term, CareShield Life will play a larger role in ensuring long-term care affordability, as more seniors will have insurance coverage. Launched in 2020, CareShield Life replaced ElderShield to strengthen the role of insurance in financing long-term care. CareShield Life coverage is mandatory for Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents born in 1980 and later, and provides higher monthly payouts for as long as one remains in severe disability. From 2020 to 2025, payouts and premiums have been increasing by 2% per year.
26. CareShield Life is due for its first review and MOH has asked the CareShield Life Council to review the scheme, to ensure that it continues to provide financial protection against severe disability. Recommendations from the CareShield Life Council are expected to be released in the second half of 2025.
Improving Support for Fertility Preservation
27. Today, some medical treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy can cause irreversible infertility. For patients undergoing these treatments, fertility preservation procedures such as embryo and egg freezing offer hope that they can have children in future. However, not all fertility preservation procedures are eligible for financing support today.
28. To support the parenthood aspirations of these patients, we will enhance our financing schemes to support the preservation of fertility where medically necessary treatment will cause irreversible infertility. Table 9 summarises the enhancements in financing support for such fertility preservation procedures:
Table 9: Current and Expanded Coverage of Fertility Preservation for Irreversible Infertility Due to Medical Circumstances.
Procedure | Subsidy | MediShield Life | MediSave |
Embryo Freezing | [New] Up to 80% in means-tested subsidy | [New] Extended for surgical procedure | [New] Extended for all components (i.e. including pre- and post- procedure costs) |
Egg Freezing | [No change] Existing coverage for all components continue to apply. | ||
Sperm Freezing | [No change] No coverage as it is relatively lower cost after subsidy | ||
Ovarian Tissue Freezing | [No change] Up to 80% in means-tested subsidy | [New] Extended for surgical procedure | [New] Extended for all components |
Ovarian Transposition | [No change] Coverage under existing surgical procedure limits continue to apply. | ||
Radiation Shielding | [No change] Coverage under existing radiotherapy limits continue to apply. | ||
29. The subsidy enhancements will be implemented in June 2025 while the extension of MediSave and MediShield Life coverage to these procedures will be implemented in June 2026. More details will be released when ready.
30. Patients who face challenges affording their fertility preservation treatments even after subsidies, MediSave and MediShield Life may approach medical social workers at their public healthcare institutions to apply for financial assistance such as MediFund.
More Drugs Eligible for Enhanced Subsidies under Healthier SG Chronic Tier
31. In February 2024, MOH introduced the Healthier SG Chronic Tier and Healthier SG Medication List which comprises 200 common chronic medications. These medications are commonly used for the management of Chronic Disease Management Programme (CDMP) conditions, and are also subsidised at the polyclinics. Enrollees can benefit from enhanced subsidies under the Healthier SG Chronic Tier for medications on the Healthier SG Medication List at their enrolled GP clinic.
32. By mid-2025, three more drugs will be eligible for enhanced subsidies at GP clinics under the Healthier SG Chronic Tier. These three drugs are more costly, and are from the Medication Assistance Fund list. They are:
a. Evolocumab, which is used for some patients with high cholesterol levels despite being on other cholesterol-lowering medications or those with Familial Hypercholesterolemia; and
b. Humalog Mix25 and Humalog Mix 50 Kwikpens®, which are insulins that can be used for blood sugar control in some patients with Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
33. With the inclusion of these drugs, eligible Healthier SG enrollees who require these medications for the specific clinical indications can enjoy improved affordability with means-tested subsidies of up to 87.5%. For example, Evolocumab, which costs more than $230 per month for a patient, will cost about $30 to $60 per month, depending on the means-test status and age of the patient.
1 Subsidy enhancements will also be applicable to Community Haemodialysis, High Dependency Haemodialysis, and Peritoneal Dialysis Subsidies. MOH will provide more details when ready.