Parliament: Difficult to create single formula for MediShield Life premium hikes, says Koh Poh Koon

SINGAPORE - While having a single formula to justify increases in Medishield Life premiums is ideal, creating one that can account for the various factors of healthcare inflation is very difficult, said Senior Minister of State for Health Koh Poh Koon.

He cited how a patient with a head injury would be sent for an X-ray that would cost $15 to $20 in earlier years. However, an X-ray would not indicate if the patient had bleeding in the brain or traumatic soft tissue injury. "As opposed to a transport fare formula, where the parameters and the variables are a little bit more fixed and more predictable, healthcare inflation takes into account many unforeseen kinds of variables that will come along the way," he said.

Mr Giam and Mr Leong asked if the full MediShield Life actuarial report could be made publicly available so independent actuaries can analyse it. Mr Giam also asked if the Government had studied how other countries release such reports for their national health insurance schemes. "Over time, we could perhaps engage different consultants to take a look, to challenge the assumptions, to do another calculation at an appropriate time to make sure that we are still on track," said Dr Koh, noting that the MediShield Life scheme was launched in 2015 and is still new.

In response, Dr Koh cited Hong Kong's government-backed Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme and said the revised MediShield Life premiums are 76 per cent lower on average, across all age bands.

Where are the surplus of the current scheme? It is going to fund the subsidies for the new scheme? So as usual subsidies from the G is bs...like polyclinic subsidies...👏👏👏

Koh is very comfortable with his lifestyle right now!

Nothing is difficult if u set your mind to it, prof koh 👀😡

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