2024 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Medical Expenses

For the past few years, I’ve been publishing a “best credit cards for hospitals” article, but this year I’m going to expand it further because not every medical situation ends up in a hospital bill (thankfully!).

In this post, I’ll run through the best cards to use for medical expenses in general, whether dentists, doctors, physiotherapists, opticians or podiatrists (no, homeopathy doesn’t count).

How do medical expenses code?

Medical transactions can code under a wide range of MCCs, depending on the malady in question.

As you can see, hospitals are just one of many possible healthcare-related MCCs. And that’s a good thing, because even though many banks have nerfed rewards for hospitals, they haven’t done so for the rest.

In case you’re uncertain about the MCC, there’s three ways of looking it up before making a purchase:

Best Cards for Hospitals

Let’s start with hospitals first, because banks tend to see it as a separate category from other healthcare transactions.

Here’s how the MOH organises hospitals in Singapore: 

All polyclinics and the following specialist centres also code as public hospitals.

Why does the classification matter? Because it affects the hospital’s MDR, or Merchant Discount Rate- the fee paid to accept credit card payments. In general, public hospitals pay lower MDRs, while private hospitals pay higher. Therefore, while some banks have excluded hospitals altogether, others have taken the less drastic step of only excluding public ones. 

Here’s the list of banks which still award points for hospital transactions:

	Public	Private & Non-Profit
	✕	✓
	✕	✕
ULTIMA	✓	✓
All other cards	✕	✕
	✕	✕
	✕	✕
	✓	✓
VOYAGE & Premier Visa Infinite	✕	✓
All other cards	✕	✕
	✕	✕
	✕	✕

Therefore, you can use the following cards, subject to the exclusions mentioned in the table above.

Card	Earn Rate
AMEX HighFlyer Card	1.8 mpd
Citi ULTIMA	1.6 mpd
AMEX Solitaire PPS Credit Card	1.3 mpd
AMEX PPS Credit Card	1.3 mpd
OCBC VOYAGE	1.3 mpd
OCBC Premier Visa Infinite	1.28 mpd
AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend	1.2 mpd
Maybank Visa Infinite	1.2 mpd
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card	1.1 mpd
AMEX Centurion	0.98 mpd
AMEX Platinum Charge	0.78 mpd
AMEX Platinum Reserve	0.69 mpd
AMEX Platinum Credit Card	0.69 mpd

By the way, don’t assume that just because a medical practice is located on the grounds of a hospital, it will code as a hospital. In fact, most clinics within hospitals have their own MCCs, in which case you should refer to the next section. 

Workarounds

If you’re visiting a public hospital or polyclinic, not all is lost. You can pay your bills via the HealthHub/Health Buddy/OneNUHS app and still earn miles, since this changes the transaction to MCC 8099!

I’d recommend using the Citi Rewards Card or DBS Woman’s World Card for 4 mpd, subject to the usual monthly caps.

Best Cards for Other Medical Expenses

When it comes to non-hospital medical expenses, we basically have a general spending situation on our hands.

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Amaze + Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Max $1K per s. month Review
DBS WWMC Apply	4 mpd	Max S$2K per c. month. Must be online Review
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1.1K per c. month, must use mobile payments Review
UOB Visa Signature  Apply	4 mpd	Min S$1K, max S$2K per s. month on contactless & petrol Review

The only card with an exclusion for non-hospital healthcare transactions is the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card, which excludes MCCs 8011 and 8099 effective August 2022. 

Conclusion

While more and more banks are excluding rewards for hospital transactions, there’s thankfully still workarounds in the form of HealthHub and Health Buddy.

Moreover, if you’re just looking at outpatient treatment, most credit cards will let you earn the usual rewards of up to 4 mpd on your spending.