PUTRAJAYA, Jan 24 — About 20 members of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) demonstrated at the Finance Ministry here today against a new government-run health insurance scheme for the poor that will be funded by an insurance company.
PSM central committee member Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj claimed the mySalam insurance scheme would weaken the public health care system as it would lead to more patients and specialists going to the private sector instead.
“It is very important to ensure that the RM2 billion donated by an insurance company is not used in a way that encourages Malaysians to be customers of private insurance companies,” PSM said in its memorandum addressed to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng after the ministry launched the mySalam scheme.
The memorandum was handed to Finance Ministry officials later.
Insurance firm Great Eastern Life is contributing RM2 billion to the MySalam scheme for the bottom 40 per cent (B40) workers that will enable eligible recipients to get an RM8,000 one-off payment if they suffer any of 36 critical illnesses, including cancer, heart attack and Alzheimer’s.
The international insurance company’s RM2 billion contribution was in exchange for not having to divest 30 per cent of its Malaysian business in compliance to Bank Negara rules that stipulated a 70 per cent cap on foreign ownership of local insurance firms.
Dr Jeyakumar said an insurance system would change the payment method in health care, where each treatment and procedure would be charged based on fee-for-service, which he claimed would raise treatment costs.
“Right now, our country spends RM55 billion a year on all health costs in the country,” he said, indicating that it was for both public and private health care.
“A social insurance system based on a ‘fee for service’ will increase treatment costs to RM100 billion or more,” he claimed.
The socialist politician added that a social health insurance system, which should be handled by a non-profit body like the Employees Provident Fund or Perkeso, would not currently work either because taking another cut from the poor’s income would place an additional burden to them.
“The RM2 billion contributed by the insurance company can be used to lighten the burden of patients in the public sector who are required to make ‘co-payments’ in the form of buying screws and plates for orthopaedic surgery, glasses for cataract surgery, stents for angioplasty procedures, and many more devices that must be purchased by patients at public hospitals,” suggested the former Sungai Siput MP.
