KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 — The government-run health insurance scheme for the bottom 40 per cent of workers raises the concern of data breach by Singaporean insurance company Great Eastern Takaful Berhad, Perkasa claimed today.

Its information chief Nasrul Ali Hasan Abdul Latif said this is because the Finance Ministry has allowed Great Eastern Takaful to have access to 3.69 million data from the B40 groups, which consist of personal details, home and work address, dependents, monthly income, and frequency of utilising the scheme as well as health details.

“Based on my observation and knowledge on Big Data Analysis, this scheme opens up the space to openly invade the data of each individual by a foreign company, which may lead to abuse. This raises the question of data privacy.

“With the complete data, the Singaporean company would not only be able to conduct market study to ensure the stability of its company in Malaysia, but the data could also be used as a political target in Malaysia with the cooperation of Singaporean political party, such as taking over leadership power in Malaysia,” he said in a statement, today.

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Nasrul said the matter would also jeopardise the country’s future as well as the Takaful and local insurance market and would pave way for Malaysia to me dominated by other large foreign companies.

He said there are many doubts concerning the MySalam health insurance scheme, and the Pakatan Harapan government has to explain why Great Eastern Takaful, which had contributed a whopping RM2 billion, was selected to operate the programme.

“Other leaders within PH should not be silent over the matter. If things are not clear and it would not benefit the country, then they should vote and suggest for the scheme to be cancelled or postponed until a thorough study is made.

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“A clear standard procedure should be made in order for the questions to be answered before it is implemented,” he said.

Following the launch of the MySalam scheme, doctor and patient groups have raised concerns about the scheme as they said it lacks details and has insufficient benefits.

Putrajaya had announced the scheme on January 24, which is expected to benefit 3.69 million people from the B40 group who would get a one-off payment of RM8,000 if they suffered certain critical illnesses.

Besides the one-off RM8,000 payment, recipients will also get RM50 income replacements daily if they seek treatment at any government hospital for a maximum of 14 days a year, or equivalent to RM700 annually.

Great Eastern’s RM2 billion contribution was in exchange for not having to divest 30 per cent of its Malaysian business in compliance with Bank Negara rules that stipulated a 70 per cent cap on foreign ownership of local insurance firms.

The coverage under the scheme came into effect on January 1. Eligible B40 recipients can start making claims from March 1 onwards.

The scheme is only applicable for public hospitals.