The MediSave Account can be used for a wide variety of costly medical treatments (e.g. hospitalisation expenses, selected outpatient treatments), and MediSave Care. A higher withdrawal amount for long-term care would result in a faster depletion of MediSave Account balances, which may affect an individual’s ability to pay for other medical expenses in the future.

Instead, MediSave Care complements insurance schemes such as ElderShield / CareShield Life / Supplement payouts, existing Government subsidies, Government assistance schemes, community support and other personal savings and family support, to help individuals better meet their long-term care financing needs. In deciding the MediSave Care withdrawal amount, the Government took into account the basic long-term care costs for a range of services and settings, other sources of long-term care funding such as those mentioned before, as well as the need to balance withdrawal amounts with MediSave adequacy.

Meanwhile, ElderFund is targeted at helping lower-income Singaporeans who cannot benefit from ElderShield or CareShield Life and have low MediSave balances to draw on for their long-term care needs.