Buying a Primary Care Plan for your workers

The plan is compulsory for two groups of workers, and the test is about the worker rather than about the pass alone. It applies to Work Permit holders other than migrant domestic workers, and to S Pass holders, where either the worker stays in a dormitory that can accommodate 7 or more workers, or the employer carries on business in the construction, marine shipyard or process sectors. The sector limb follows the business activity the employer declared, not the job title on the worker’s pass.

Migrant domestic workers are excluded by name, and MOM names no other pass type as covered. It states separately that medical insurance is not required for Employment Pass holders. An employer may still choose to provide medical cover for anyone it likes; that would be a contractual benefit rather than a rule of the plan.

Where neither limb is met, MOM describes the plan as optional and strongly encourages employers to buy it anyway. The worker who rents a room rather than staying in a dormitory, and whose employer is not in the three sectors, is not one of the workers MOM makes the plan compulsory for.

A dormitory counts as a dormitory on MOM’s own definition, which is wider than the purpose-built blocks the word suggests: a purpose-built dormitory licensed under the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act 2015, a factory-converted dormitory, construction temporary quarters, or temporary occupation licence quarters.

The plan is bought as a scope of services. MOM describes the employer as buying cover for most of a worker’s primary healthcare needs under a fixed scope of services, at a fixed annual capitation rate, and it is that scope of services that sets what the plan covers.

The services MOM lists are the statutory medical examination for a work pass application or renewal where one is required; unlimited consultations for acute conditions such as flu and fever and for chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes; a basic health screening each year; telemedicine and medication delivery within the zone where the plan was bought; two-way scheduled transport between dormitories and medical centres for workers who report sick, excluding specialist appointments; and ambulance or special transport to another medical facility, such as an emergency department, where that is needed.

The services are not free to the worker. A fixed co-payment applies to each telemedicine consultation and to each visit to a medical centre or clinic, and MOM publishes the current amount on its page about getting primary care services.

How a worker reaches a doctor follows the same zone. Telemedicine is available around the clock for non-urgent consultations, and for a worker staying in a dormitory the Anchor Operator arranges the scheduled transport to a medical centre. MOM notes that all of the medical centres and clinics it lists are closed on public holidays, and that their operating hours can change, so it advises checking with the centre directly.

The plan can only be bought from MOM’s appointed Anchor Operators, which are medical service providers appointed by MOM for the purpose. Which one is not a matter of preference: an employer must buy from the operator that manages the zone where the workers stay.

The zone is derived from the address rather than picked. MOM publishes a table that maps the first two digits of a worker’s residential postal code to six zones, with the operator, the price and the buying instructions for each, so the zone follows the address the worker actually lives at.

Each operator enrols employers in its own way, and MOM publishes the instructions with the zone: one asks for a completed registration form online, another for a signed service agreement sent with the company’s latest business profile or instant information from Bizfile, after which it issues access to a corporate portal. MOM also publishes each operator’s contact details for administrative questions on registration and payment. The price is published per zone, and MOM explains that prices differ between operators because the zones differ in size.

One case has its own rule. Where a worker stays overseas and commutes into Singapore daily, the plan can be bought for the zone where the worker works or for the zone that is most accessible for medical attention. MOM gives that answer for a Malaysian worker in the three sectors who has no valid residential address in Singapore: the plan is still required, and the only question is which zone it is bought in.

The purchase comes before the pass, not after. MOM states that the plan must be bought before the worker’s Work Permit or S Pass can be issued or renewed, and advises buying it as soon as the in-principle approval letter or the work pass renewal notice arrives.

Buying is followed by a declaration on MOM’s eServices: on WP Online for a Work Permit holder, and on the EP eService for an S Pass holder. The declaration is part of the renewal rather than an extra step, because MOM states that before a Work Permit can be renewed the purchase must be declared on WP Online, and that before an S Pass can be renewed it must be declared on the EP eService.

A renewal therefore has an order to it. The renewal notice arrives; the plan is bought for each eligible worker who stays in a dormitory or works in the three sectors; the purchase is declared; and only then is the pass renewed. The renewal itself can be filed either by the employer or by an appointed employment agent.

The plan runs for 12 months, renewed for another 12 automatically. MOM’s worked example shows when cover begins: a plan paid for on one day ran from the day after that payment for the following year, so the year starts the day after the payment rather than on it.

The PCP does not need a renewal application of its own. MOM states that on expiry it is automatically renewed for a further period unless it is terminated by the employer. The pass renewal is the separate step described above, with its own notice and its own declaration.

Home leave is not a pause. MOM answers the question directly: the plan must be maintained for the period of the worker’s employment with the employer.

A change of address can change the operator without ending the plan. Where a worker’s residential address moves to a different zone, MOM encourages switching to the Anchor Operator in the new zone before the first day of the next month, for better access to care; the employer may keep the current operator where there is an existing doctor–patient relationship or the move is temporary, such as for a project. The month of termination is not refunded pro rata, and the worker can still use the previous operator until the end of that month.

The plan is tied to the employer as much as to the worker. MOM states that it is mandatory for all eligible new work pass applicants, renewals and workers who change employers, so a worker moving to a new employer is covered by a plan the new employer buys, in place before the new pass is issued.

None of the pages cited here describes handing a plan over from one employer to another. What it describes is the new employer buying a plan, and the old plan being ended through the operator it was bought from, with the refund arranged with that operator.

Two refund outcomes are published. Where a worker never arrives in Singapore after the in-principle approval, the plan can be terminated and refunded in full. In other cases the month of termination is not refunded pro rata, the worker keeps access to care with that operator until the end of the month, and no further monthly instalments fall due once the termination takes effect; MOM adds that where the worker has arrived, the plan can only be terminated once the in-principle approval is cancelled.

The pass side of a move is a different set of steps, set out in Renewing a work pass.

The plan reaches out-patient primary care and stops there. MOM answers the question in as many words: it does not replace the mandatory medical insurance for in-patient care, hospitalisation and day surgery, such as the Foreign Worker Medical Insurance, and it does not cover in-patient care and its associated fees. An eligible worker needs both, and the two are bought and declared separately.

Medical insurance is a duty in its own right, with its own minimum cover, its own declaration and its own exceptions, and it is described in Insurance for work pass holders. The wider duties around both — salary, housing, medical treatment as part of upkeep, and the fees an employer may not recover from a worker — are set out in Work pass conditions and your protection.

Neither an existing out-patient policy nor a doctor at the workplace is an exemption. Both cases have the same answer: a company cannot be exempted because it has bought out-patient care insurance with specialist coverage for its workers, and an employer with an on-site general practitioner must still buy the plan for eligible workers. What MOM does encourage is keeping the existing arrangements alongside the plan, and reviewing cover to buy more than the minimum where the company’s policy calls for it.

MOM has announced an enhanced plan from 1 April 2027, published on 6 August 2026, and none of it is in force today. New Anchor Operators have been appointed from that date for a term of five years, one for each region: SATA CommHealth for the north, St Andrew’s Mission Hospital for the south, Healthway Medical Group for the east and Fullerton Health for the west.

The zones are consolidated at the same time: the six zones in use today become four zones, each run by one of those operators. MOM states that the change will bring care closer to where workers live, standardise the co-payment at a single amount per consultation for both clinic visits and telemedicine, and lower or maintain costs for 97% of employers. A Primary Care Plan Enrolment Portal is to be introduced from the same date.

A second change was announced earlier and is less settled. On 14 December 2025 MOM announced that employers of S Pass holders in the three sectors who do not stay in dormitories would be able to opt them out of the plan where a corporate healthcare plan of comparable coverage already applies to them, with early 2026 given as the start — a date that has now passed. None of the pages cited here publishes a definition of comparable coverage or a procedure for choosing the option, and MOM’s guidance still states the rule without the exception. Until those details are published, the rule above is the one to work to.