Great Eastern’s Integrated Shield Plans: Should You Consider Getting One?

This post was written in collaboration with Great Eastern. While we are financially compensated by them, we nonetheless strive to maintain our editorial integrity and review products with the same objective lens. We are committed to providing the best information in order for you to make personal financial decisions with confidence. You can view our Editorial Guidelines here.

Integrated Shield Plans (IPs) complement your existing MediShield Life protection to cover the bulk of your medical bills if you get hospitalised. Whether you have just started working or are a parent with young ones to look after, the benefits of an IP will come in useful in times of need.

You could consider buying an IP once you start working. No matter how young you are, health issues can occur, and an IP can give you the assurance that the bulk of your hospital bills will be taken care of with the choice of a higher ward type at a restructured hospital or even at a private hospital.

If you’re a freelancer or self-employed, having protection from an IP is even more crucial as you are not protected by employer-sponsored health insurance.

And for those who are parents, your child’s health and safety are paramount. Other than protecting yourself, you can also look into getting a comprehensive IP for your child.

There are many insurers offering IPs out there. As you know, IPs give the option to cover your inpatient hospitalisation bills incurred in both restructured and private hospitals. IPs could also help to cover pre- and post-hospitalisation costs in addition to hospitalisation and surgeries, extend your claim limit, and so on.

However, with IPs, one factor to look out for is the co-payment portion — that is, the portion of your bill that you will have to pay out of pocket when making a claim.

Great Eastern’s IPs and supplementary plans enable you to pay some of the lowest co-payment portions possible, capped at the industry minimum of 5% of your total eligible bill*. That means you don’t have to worry about cost whenever you seek medical treatment, further reducing your potential out-of-pocket expenses.

What Shield Plans does Great Eastern have?

Great Eastern has a full suite of plans to suit every budget and coverage requirement.

What’s more, regardless of plan tier, Great Eastern’s IPs offer 120 days of pre- and up to 365 days of post-hospitalisation coverage.

Here’s a list of the Great Eastern IPs available:

GREAT SupremeHealth B Plus — Covers up to Class B1 wards at restructured hospitals, with coverage of up to $500,000 per policy year.
GREAT SupremeHealth A Plus — Covers up to Class A wards at restructured hospitals, with coverage of up to $1,000,000 per policy year.
GREAT SupremeHealth P Plus — Covers all hospitals, private and restructured, with coverage of up to $1,500,000 per policy year.

To beef up the protection offered by your IP, you can add-on a GREAT TotalCare supplementary plan. Depending on the plan type chosen, GREAT TotalCare plans can reduce your co-payment portion to just 5% of your total eligible hospital bill, subject to a maximum of $3,000 per policy year*.

They also come with a host of special benefits, such as home health care benefits and reimbursement of Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatment (TCM) treatments after you are discharged from the hospital.

By the way, GREAT TotalCare is the only IP supplementary plan offering outpatient cancer treatment coverage of up to $10,000 per policy year (subject to co-payment levels) without a hospital stay. Such treatment must be provided by a hospital or legally-registered outpatient cancer treatment centre.

This is ideal for long-term cancer patients and patients in remission, as the outpatient cancer coverage extends beyond the 365 days of post-hospitalisation coverage offered by the basic plan. That means you can continue to see specialists for follow-up treatment including tests, consultations, medications and so on, safe in the knowledge that you can claim up to $10,000 per policy year.

There are 2 broad types of supplementary plans that Great Eastern offers:

Classic plans — For those who don’t mind paying a slightly higher co-payment for smaller bills, in exchange for more affordable premiums
Elite plans — For those who want to ensure they’d only incur a maximum of 5% co-payment and don’t mind paying higher premiums

Finally, if you are seeking coverage for planned medical treatment overseas at world-class medical institutions, you can consider adding on the GREAT TotalCare Plus rider.

What type of care do you wish to have?

As you can see, Great Eastern’s IPs cater to people of varying budget levels and with different coverage needs. So, it helps to think about the kind of hospital ward or medical care you wish to gain access to, as well as your budget for insurance premiums.

In general, for those who are happy to use restructured hospitals rather than private hospitals, they can consider the GREAT SupremeHealth A Plus or B Plus plans. Those who wish to enjoy private hospital care can purchase GREAT SupremeHealth P Plus for ultimate peace of mind.

For instance, a young person who has just started working and is on a tight budget might choose to start with a more basic plan such as GREAT SupremeHealth B Plus. This plan will give him access to Class B1 wards at restructured hospitals. In order to keep out-of-pocket costs to a minimum, he can also purchase GREAT TotalCare Classic-B, which ensures that his co-payment is either 5% of the hospital bill regardless of bill size, or the deductible incurred under the main plan, whichever is higher.

As his income rises over the years, he can upgrade his plan to gain access to higher-tier hospital wards and/or private hospitals.

On the other hand, for a person who already has enough room in her budget, going for the highest-tier GREAT SupremeHealth P Plus plan and the GREAT TotalCare Elite-P plan will ensure that she has access to the highest quality healthcare available in Singapore.

This combination will offer some of the most comprehensive protection on the market, with all eligible medical bills enjoying coverage of up to 95%. In addition, the annual coverage for the main GREAT SupremeHealth policy is up to $1,500,000, with an additional benefit of up to $400,000 for the additional TotalCare benefits.