But for insurers, this generosity hurts. Executive director of the Life Insurance Association, Singapore (LIA Singapore), Mr Chan Wai Kit, said that in specific years,\u00a0despite rising premiums, the industry has seen\u00a0single-digit profit margins in health insurance portfolios and some IP insurers\u00a0are even incurring losses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
LIA Singapore is the not-for-profit\u00a0industry body representing life insurance companies in Singapore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of the seven Integrated Shield Plan insurers, four \u2013 Income Insurance, Singlife, HSBC Life and Raffles Health Insurance \u2013 posted underwriting losses in 2024, as rising claims outpaced premium growth.<\/p>\n
Across the six major IP insurers, net claims rose between 9 per cent and nearly 28 per cent in 2024, far exceeding medical inflation of about 10 to 11 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It cannot remain\u00a0a loss-making proposition indefinitely,\u00a0because that\u2019s just not economically viable,” said Mr Chan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Chan said insurance design must evolve to stay sustainable, with IP insurers balancing premiums, benefits and customer needs.<\/p>\n
“It isn’t as simple as saying, if you make a loss, just increase premiums by a certain percentage. Insurance doesn’t work that way. It’s a commitment to customers, protecting them over the years and decades to come.”<\/p>\n
Chief customer officer at Income Insurance, Mr Dhiren Amin, said insurers are \u201ccareful and calibrated” about making changes to IPs, as they have to maintain a delicate balance to maintain claims sustainability, cost discipline and alignment with national healthcare priorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Additionally, insurers also face the challenge of having to keep up with medical innovations, which tend to be expensive. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Prudential Singapore’s chief health officer, Dr Sidharth Kachroo said the number and size of claims that the company has seen have increased steadily, with claim volumes rising by more than 15 per cent in 2024 from the year before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Medical inflation is a complex issue,” said Dr Kachroo. “Advancement of medical technology and manpower costs contribute to increasing healthcare delivery costs, leading to increases in insurance costs and corresponding premiums.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
For doctors, the pressures are equally complex. Dr Peter Chow, the chief executive officer of IHH Healthcare Singapore, said doctors must balance patient expectations with medical necessity in an increasingly competitive environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
IHH Healthcare Singapore operates four private hospitals in Singapore: Gleneagles Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital (Orchard), Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, and Parkway East Hospital.<\/p>\n
And the solution is not as easy as capping prices on certain items, Dr Chow said, adding that if such a move were made, some doctors might make up the difference by ordering more scans or prescribing extra medication, as patients often lack the knowledge to question these decisions.<\/p>\n
“Doctors have to earn a living, hospitals need to be sustainable, insurers need to keep going \u2013 it’s not necessarily a conflict, but everyone must play their part responsibly.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But for insurers, this generosity hurts. Executive director of the Life Insurance Association, Singapore (LIA Singapore), Mr Chan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,23191,500,158438,68940],"class_list":["post-272599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-health-insurance","tag-healthcare","tag-medishield-life","tag-ong-ye-kung"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}