Real cost of healthcare in Singapore (2026): private hospital rates and the CFE shortfall

Private healthcare in Singapore is expensive, and the CFE pays back only a small part of it. A single room at Gleneagles or Mount Elizabeth costs 780 to 850 SGD a day for the room alone, and the Ministry of Health's median private bill for a gallbladder removal was 21,157 SGD, about 14,772 €. The CFE pays 19% of a hospital bill in Singapore, a fixed 21 € per doctor visit and fixed amounts for a birth, so a member without a top-up keeps 81% of a hospital bill and most of each visit.

This page gathers the prices that Singapore's hospitals and Ministry of Health actually publish, dated and linked, and works out what the CFE pays back on each. Where no price is published, as for a CT scan or an MRI, we say so rather than guess.

Where do these prices come from?

Two kinds of source, and they measure different things:

• Ministry of Health (MOH) bill data. MOH publishes what hospital bills actually came to, by procedure and by hospital. The figures are transacted bills of Singapore Citizens from 1 January to 31 December 2023, covering all cost components including doctors' fees and GST, before any MediShield Life or MediSave payout. The "typical bill" is the median, and the range runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, so half of all bills fell inside it.

• Hospital price lists. Room rates, consultation fees and maternity packages, as each hospital prints them, with the date it gives. They are list prices for one item, not a whole bill.

What this means for a foreigner. You get no subsidy. MOH has stated that foreign patients get no subsidy for inpatient treatment in public hospitals, whatever the ward class, and may pay up to 30% more than the unsubsidised rates for local private patients. So MOH's "unsubsidised" public figures can understate your bill. For private hospitals, MOH does not say whether foreigners pay the same as citizens; the private hospitals' own price pages that we read print one price, with no foreigner rate. Treat MOH figures as the best published reference, not a quote, and note that MOH has published no period after 2023.

Euro amounts use the European Central Bank reference rate of 3 November 2026: 1 € = 1.4322 SGD. Every page below was read on 4 November 2026.

Source: MOH, hospital bills and fee benchmarks and MOH bill sizes dataset; MOH, written parliamentary answer of 15 May 2012; ECB reference rate of 3 November 2026.

How much does a doctor's visit cost in Singapore?

The CFE pays a fixed 21 € per GP or specialist visit in every zone, whatever the fee, and 24.50 € for a paediatrician visit for a child aged 0 to 6.

Fees exclude medicines, tests and treatment, which are billed on top. Singapore General Hospital charges non-residents more than its own private patients: 288.78 SGD for a first visit to a senior consultant, against 222.14 SGD. We found no published fee for a private GP in town (Orchard, Novena): the only private GP fees published are the Raffles airport clinic above and the hospital urgent care centres below.

Source: provider pages linked in the table (SGH updated 1 October 2026; the other pages carry no date), read 4 Nov 2026; CFE guarantees 2026.

How much does an emergency or urgent care visit cost?

Urgent care centres are not emergency departments, and Gleneagles and Mount Elizabeth publish no A&E fee. At the urgent care centres, tests, procedures and medicines come on top of the consultation. What the CFE pays for an emergency visit abroad that does not lead to admission: its 2026 table does not say which of its amounts applies, and we have not been able to establish it, so ask the CFE before you count on a figure. If you are admitted, the stay is reimbursed at 19% and scans at 15%.

Source: provider pages linked in the table (SGH updated 1 October 2026; the others carry no date), read 4 Nov 2026; CFE guarantees 2026.

How much is a hospital room per day in Singapore?

These are room charges only. Gleneagles and Mount Elizabeth state that daily treatment fees apply on top, and the doctor's daily visit is billed separately: MOH's private-sector benchmark for a doctor's inpatient attendance in a general ward is 230 to 450 SGD a day (161 to 314 €), before medicines, procedures and tests. Raffles' table does not print the unit, and KKH does not say which residency status its A1 and B1 rates apply to. On the room alone, the CFE pays 19%, for example 103.48 € of a 780 SGD day at Gleneagles.

Private hospitals also take a deposit on admission. Mount Alvernia asks foreign patients for 100% of the 90th percentile of the estimated hospital charges. Gleneagles and Mount Elizabeth ask for a further deposit when charges exceed the first one, without publishing an amount.

Source: hospital pages linked in the table, dated as shown, read 4 Nov 2026; MOH fee benchmarks (inpatient attendance, as of 1 January 2025).

What is the average hospital bill for an operation in Singapore?

MOH's whole-bill figures, doctors included, for two common operations:

Inside the private gallbladder bill, MOH's median operation fee was 16,818 SGD and the median of other fees 4,280 SGD (ward, doctor's daily visits, consumables, medicines, tests). Its fee benchmarks for a routine case show the same split: surgeon 6,540 to 9,156 SGD, anaesthetist 1,417 to 2,289 SGD and hospital fees 8,720 to 11,990 SGD in a single room. Private gallbladder stays were short, 1.0 to 1.8 days on average at the hospitals listed. The public Ward A figure is a citizen's unsubsidised bill; a foreigner may pay up to 30% more. Gleneagles does not appear in MOH's data for either operation.

Source: MOH bill information pages SF801G and SF849A (Singapore Citizens' bills, 2023) and MOH fee benchmarks, read 4 Nov 2026.

How much does it cost to give birth in Singapore?

MOH's whole bills for a birth, in a single room, doctors included:

The "all private hospitals" row covers every ward type. Average stays were about 2 days for a vaginal delivery and 3 for a caesarean. For a complicated birth, MOH's private medians were 11,129 SGD (7,771 €) for a complicated vaginal delivery and 18,488 SGD (12,909 €) for a complicated caesarean.

Hospitals also sell maternity packages, but these are not the bill:

Every package covers hospital charges only: the obstetrician, the anaesthetist and the paediatrician are billed separately, and Thomson also bills the baby's nursery, supplies and vaccinations apart. An epidural raises the package, for example to 4,588 SGD at Gleneagles. Deposits are large: Thomson asks patients not using MediSave for 7,500 SGD for a normal delivery and 10,000 SGD for a caesarean in a single room, and Mount Alvernia for the full package price plus 2,500 SGD.

The CFE pays a fixed 3,164.11 € for a vaginal delivery and 3,573.64 € for a caesarean, which include the practitioners' fees. So compare them with MOH's whole bills, not with the packages: on the private medians, the CFE pays 42% of a vaginal delivery and 32% of a caesarean. Its amounts cover a birth without complications, and its table prices no supplement for complications. Steps, timing and the conception rule: having a baby in Singapore with the CFE.

Source: MOH bill information pages SI836U and SI834U and MOH bill sizes dataset (SI833U, SI844U) (Singapore Citizens' bills, 2023); hospital maternity pages linked in the table; CFE guarantees 2026; read 4 Nov 2026.

How much does a CT scan or MRI cost in Singapore?

We could not find a published price. None of the hospitals we checked (Gleneagles, Mount Elizabeth, Mount Alvernia, Raffles, Thomson, Singapore General Hospital, KK Women's and Children's) prints a CT or MRI price on its website. SGH's radiology charges page gives only MediSave withdrawal limits, not scan prices, and MOH's bill data cover hospital stays and procedures, not stand-alone scans. Ranges quoted around the web come from blogs and brokers, not from price lists, so we do not repeat them.

Before a scan, ask the centre for a written quote. For an outpatient X-ray, CT or MRI in Singapore, the CFE reimburses 15% of the real cost (19% with a recognised long-term condition), so 85% of whatever is billed stays with you or your top-up.

Source: hospital websites listed above and SGH radiology page, read 4 Nov 2026; CFE guarantees 2026.

What does the CFE pay back, and what is left?

Singapore is in CFE zone 5. For care given from 1 January 2026, the CFE pays 19% of the real cost of a hospital stay, with no ceiling, 15% of imaging, a fixed 21 € per GP or specialist visit (24.50 € for a paediatrician, child aged 0 to 6) and fixed amounts for a birth. It has no direct billing in Singapore, so you pay first and claim afterwards.

Three things stand out. On a hospital stay, the CFE's share is always 19%, so the bigger the bill, the bigger the gap: about 12,000 € left on a typical private gallbladder removal. On consultations, the fixed 21 € covers a third of a polyclinic visit but only a tenth of a senior specialist at SGH. Births are where the CFE does best, because its fixed amounts are large, yet it still leaves 4,387 € on the median private vaginal delivery.

Source: SG-PRICES figures above, MOH 2023 bills, hospital price lists and CFE guarantees 2026 (arrêté of 17 December 2025), read 4 Nov 2026; CFE list of countries by zone. "In euros", "CFE pays", "left to you" and "CFE share" are our calculations at the ECB rate of 3 November 2026.

How do French expats cover the shortfall?

Three set-ups: the CFE alone, which leaves the amounts above to you; the CFE plus a top-up, which pays what the CFE leaves up to its own limits and can bring direct billing; or first-euro international insurance, which pays from the first euro with no link to the CFE. What each one suits, how a foreigner is billed in public and private hospitals, and how to choose a top-up are in our guide to health insurance in Singapore for French expats. For a hospital stay in detail, read hospitalisation in Singapore with the CFE; for the limits of the CFE on its own, is the CFE alone enough in Singapore.

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