For Integrated Shield Plan insurers, raising premiums should be a last resort

[SINGAPORE] That medical inflation is on the rise is not surprising, nor that it outstrips overall inflation by three or four times.

But what I found sobering in my perusal of Integrated Shield Plan (IP) insurers’ accounts is the strong double-digit increases in net claims. The data points were extracted from insurers’ 2024 returns filed with the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

For six IP insurers, net claims rose by between 9 and nearly 28 per cent in 2024, compared to 2023. This suggests bill sizes and claims are rising at a clip far faster than medical inflation, estimated at 10 to 11 per cent. The exception was Raffles Health Insurance (RHI), whose net claims fell by 18 per cent. RHI entered the IP market around 2018, and likely has the smallest policyholder base.