MediShield Life: Your Base Layer of Hospital Cover

MediShield Life is the floor under everyone's hospital bills — not the ceiling. (Start here.)

MediShield Life is a basic health insurance run by the Government that covers every Singaporean and permanent resident for life, including those with pre-existing conditions. You are enrolled automatically, and premiums can be paid entirely from MediSave.

Its job is to cover large hospital bills, not small ones. It is built around subsidised treatment in Class B2 and C wards of public hospitals, and pays out for inpatient stays, selected outpatient treatments and some long-term therapies.

There are limits. As at June 2026, the most it pays in a policy year is S$200,000, with no lifetime cap. Day-to-day payouts are capped too — a daily ward limit and a higher limit for intensive care — so a bill above these limits leaves a balance for you to fund.

It also carries a deductible (the first slice you pay before it responds) and a co-insurance share. A new outpatient deductible takes effect from 1 June 2026. These features keep premiums affordable by leaving small costs with the patient.

Because it is pegged to subsidised public-ward treatment, anyone planning to use Class A wards or private hospitals will find MediShield Life covers only part of the bill. That gap is exactly what Integrated Shield Plans exist to fill — the subject of the next post.

Illustrative example: the floor, not the ceiling

The chart shows the same MediShield Life cover against two bills. On a subsidised public bill it pays most of the cost; on a private bill for the same illness it covers only a sliver, leaving a large out-of-pocket gap. That is the whole point: a genuine floor — universal, lifelong and cheap — but built for subsidised public care.