Dental Insurance vs MediSave vs CHAS: What Actually Pays for What

Which scheme pays for what

Almost every question we get at the front desk about paying for dental treatment is really one question: is this claimable, and from where. The honest answer is that the schemes barely overlap. MediSave is for surgery. CHAS is for routine and restorative care. Insurance is for whatever your employer bought. The Child Development Account is for children. So start with the treatment, not with the scheme.

Sources: MOH, Community Health Assist Scheme and CPF Board, How MediSave can help with your healthcare expenses.

Figures are the published scheme maximums, not what any one patient receives. A CHAS subsidy is capped per claim and cannot exceed what the clinic charges.

What CHAS pays, and the limits nobody mentions

Every Singapore Citizen is eligible for CHAS regardless of income. What differs is the tier. MOH sets it by household monthly income per person: $1,500 and below for Blue, $1,501 to $2,300 for Orange, above $2,300 for Green. For households with no income the test is the Annual Value of the home instead, at $21,000 and below for Blue and $21,001 to $31,000 for Orange. Those thresholds took effect on 1 January 2025. Merdeka and Pioneer Generation cardholders qualify by birth cohort rather than income, and receive the highest rates.

The 2026 rates are the ones MOH raised on 1 October 2025, when it also extended ten basic and preventive procedures to Orange cardholders for the first time and increased the caps on seven restorative procedures across every card. We set out the full rate table in our CHAS dental subsidies 2026 guide. What catches most people out is not the rates at all. It is the second column of MOH's table: the claim limits.

Source: MOH, CHAS dental subsidies from 1 October 2025, claim limits column.

Two consultations a year with six months between them is the line that surprises people most. Come in for a check-up in January and again in March, and the second consultation is not subsidised even though the scaling that day still is. Four extractions and two root canals a year are generous for most mouths and tight for a few. And because the denture limit runs over three calendar years rather than one, a complete denture claimed in December 2026 sets your next eligible claim in 2029.

How much of a bill the subsidy covers depends on the card. The bars below take one worked example, a molar root canal followed by a permanent crown on the same tooth, and show the subsidy each card tier carries at the published maximums.

One change is worth knowing about before your next appointment. Since 1 October 2025 every CHAS dental clinic has had to display MOH's fee benchmarks next to its own price list, and from 1 September 2026 clinics must submit a clinical justification for any CHAS claim that exceeds the benchmark. We set out the full benchmark table, and the common treatments MOH has published no benchmark for at all, in our guide to the 2026 MOH dental fee benchmarks.

Why MediSave will not pay for a filling

This is the most common misunderstanding we meet, and an expensive one to discover at the counter. CPF Board puts it plainly: dental treatments are generally not eligible for MediSave claims, except for surgical treatments carried out for medical reasons such as wisdom tooth surgery and dental implants. The same page then names the exclusions. Tooth extractions, crown fittings, dentures and orthodontic braces are not covered by MediSave.

So the test is not how much the treatment costs, or how badly you need it. The test is whether it is a surgical procedure done on medical grounds. A surgical wisdom tooth removal is surgery. Placing a dental implant is surgery, and so is the bone grafting that sometimes precedes it. A filling and a bridge are not, however large the bill. Our MediSave for dental treatment page walks through the paperwork for the procedures that do qualify, and our earlier explainer covers the same ground for wisdom teeth.

When a procedure does qualify, the claimable amount is set by which surgical table it falls into rather than by its name. CPF Board's withdrawal limits run from $240 for a Table 1A operation to $5,290 for Table 7C, and that ceiling covers surgeon, anaesthetist and facility fees together. Ask the clinic which table your procedure sits in before the day rather than after it. You can also use an immediate family member's MediSave: spouse, children, parents, and grandparents or siblings where they are citizens or permanent residents.

It is worth being precise about what MediSave is, too. MoneySense, the national financial education programme, describes it as a savings account for healthcare expenses, not a health insurance policy. It is your own money, with rules attached to how it may be spent. That distinction matters for the section after next.

Flexi-MediSave at 60 and above

Flexi-MediSave is the one place where MediSave money reaches ordinary outpatient care. CPF Board allows members aged 60 and above to use up to $400 a year from their own or their spouse's MediSave, where that spouse is also 60 or above, for outpatient treatment at polyclinics, public hospital specialist outpatient clinics and CHAS GP clinics. The $400 is counted per patient, whichever account it comes from.

MOH announced on 1 September 2025 that from mid-2026, seniors aged 60 and above can also use Flexi-MediSave to offset up to $400 a year for root canal treatments and permanent crowns at CHAS dental clinics and public healthcare institutions. That is the first time MediSave money has been able to reach a non-surgical dental treatment. Every CHAS dental clinic has to onboard the scheme, and MOH has said clinics not accredited by 31 December 2026 will be offboarded from CHAS altogether. We covered the change and who it reaches in our Flexi-MediSave 2026 explainer.

MOH's published wording is from mid-2026, and we have not found a government notice confirming a go-live date for the dental extension. If you are 60 or above and planning a root canal or a crown, ask us to check your Flexi-MediSave position when you book rather than assuming it is already running.

What dental insurance covers here

Start by ruling out the cover most people already hold. MediShield Life, and the Integrated Shield Plan built on top of it, are hospitalisation cover. MOH describes the private component of an Integrated Shield Plan as targeted at covering higher ward classes or private hospitals. Neither is designed for an appointment at a dental clinic. MediSave can pay the premiums on those plans, but only up to the Additional Withdrawal Limits MOH sets by age: $300 a year at 40 and below, $600 from 41 to 70, and $900 at 71 and above.

Dental cover in Singapore usually arrives a different way, through an employer's group plan. That is a good thing to have and a fragile thing to depend on. MoneySense makes the point bluntly: a group policy may end when you change employer or retire, so it should not be treated as permanent cover. It is also the only one of the schemes on this page whose terms nobody publishes. Your annual limit, your excluded treatments and your waiting periods sit in a policy document your HR department holds, not in a government table we can quote at you.

What we can tell you is what we see across the counter, and it should be read as that rather than as research. Some plans have us on a panel and bill the insurer directly. Many do not, and the patient pays and claims back afterwards with an itemised bill. Most plans carry an annual cap that a single crown will exhaust. Very few pay for anything cosmetic. Our dental insurance page lists the plans we work with and what claiming involves. Before a large treatment, ask your insurer two questions: what is my remaining annual dental limit, and is this clinic on your panel.

We have deliberately not quoted a typical annual dental limit. There is no published Singapore-wide figure for one, and the ranges that circulate online come from insurance marketing rather than from a regulator or a dataset.

Children, the CDA, and what changes in 2027

For children the account that matters is the Child Development Account. A first child currently receives a $5,000 First Step Grant plus government co-matching up to $4,000, so up to $9,000 in total, and the money can only be spent at Approved Institutions rather than withdrawn as cash. Medical institutions sit on that list, which is why a child's first dental visit can be paid from it. We are a Baby Bonus Approved Institution, and our Baby Bonus and CDA page explains how the NETS-CDA card works at the counter.

Two changes are now confirmed. The SG Child Support Package, announced at the 2026 National Day Rally, will replace the Baby Bonus Scheme and the Large Families Scheme, with payouts starting from April 2027 and children already enrolled transitioned automatically. For dental purposes the important part is the timeline. For Singapore citizen children born on or after 1 January 2015, the CDA will stay open until the end of the year the child turns 16 rather than closing at 12. From 1 October 2027 all CDA co-matching caps become $5,000.

That matters more than it sounds. The account will now stay open through the years when children need dentistry most: first orthodontic assessments, the sealant and fluoride years, and the start of braces. CHAS runs alongside the CDA rather than instead of it, too. A child in a CHAS household holds a card in their own right, so a filling can draw a CHAS subsidy and the balance can be settled from the CDA. Our notes for parents cover what to expect at each age.

Can you stack them?

Yes, and on a large restorative bill you should. The schemes apply in sequence. CHAS comes off the clinic's charges first, then Flexi-MediSave if you are eligible and the treatment qualifies, and anything an insurer reimburses comes last. Here is one bill worked all the way through, for a CHAS Blue cardholder having a molar root canal and a crown on the same tooth.

Illustrative only. The two fees are figures we chose inside MOH's published benchmark ranges, which are $872 to $1,400 for a molar root canal and $750 to $1,400 for a permanent crown. They are not a quote. Subsidies are shown at the published maximum per claim and cannot exceed what the clinic charges. The example assumes both claims sit inside the calendar-year limits above. Our own published prices are on the dental price list.

The order matters for a second reason. Insurers reimburse against what you actually paid, so claiming CHAS first reduces what an employer plan will pay out. That is not a reason to skip the subsidy. CHAS money is not repayable and an annual insurance limit is finite, so spending the subsidy first and the insurance limit on the remainder almost always leaves you better off across a year, particularly if more treatment follows.

What to check before you book

1. Confirm which card you hold and what is left this year. Entitlements run by calendar year and are shared across every CHAS clinic you visit, not just ours. MOH's CHAS page sets out the current tiers and limits.
2. Ask for the fee benchmark next to the quote. CHAS dental clinics have had to display MOH's benchmarks since 1 October 2025, and you are entitled to see where a quoted fee sits against one.
3. If the treatment is surgical, ask which MediSave operation table it falls under before the appointment, so you know the claimable ceiling rather than guessing at it.
4. If you have an employer plan, ask HR for your remaining annual dental limit and whether we are on the panel. Bring the card or the policy number with you.
5. Book at whichever clinic suits you: Suntec City, Marina Square, Marine Parade or Tanjong Katong. All four of our Singapore clinics accept CHAS, MediSave and Baby Bonus, and all four see these schemes every day.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

Sources: MOH, Community Health Assist Scheme; MOH press release, 1 September 2025; CPF Board, How MediSave can help with your healthcare expenses; CPF Board, What is outpatient Flexi-MediSave; CPF Board, MediSave Withdrawal Limits, 1 April 2025; MOH, About Integrated Shield Plans; MoneySense, Understanding health insurance; LifeSG, SG Child Support Package.