Allowing Parents to Use Cash to Pay for Children’s MediShield Life Plan Premiums

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1326
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Ms Cheryl Chan Wei Ling
MP for East Coast GRC

Question No. 3324

To ask the Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry will consider allowing parents to use cash to pay for their children’s MediShield Life plan premiums; and (b) if not, why.

Answer

Today, MediShield Life premiums can only be paid using MediSave as this is the preferred option for most Singaporeans, and is not cost-efficient to set up a cash payment system for a very small minority.

If there are insufficient funds in MediSave accounts, members may top up their or their dependants’ MediSave accounts via the CPF Board’s e-Cashier using PayNow or eNets Debit. Nevertheless, if there is demand for new payment modalities, such as through GIRO, we will study it.