Health insurance scheme for B40

IPOH: The Health Ministry is in the final stage of drawing up a health insurance protection scheme for those in the B40 group to help them obtain health treatment at government and private hospitals.

Deputy Health Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye said the proposed insurance protection scheme would be tabled in Parliament during the 2019 budget sitting in October.

He said a minimum rate that could be afforded by the B40 would be set as premium payment for the insurance coverage.

As an example, the government will provide insurance protection of between RM10,000 and RM20,000 a year per family for their hospital bills, he told reporters after opening the 25th anniversary celebration of the Perak Thalassaemia Society at Tow Boo Keong Temple yesterday.

He said this in response to a suggestion by a former health director-general, Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican, for the government to introduce a mandatory health insurance scheme to cover increasing healthcare cost.

Dr Ismail said he had advocated for a national health care financing system since 1998 and presented it to three prime ministers.

“You want to have insurance, don’t make it voluntary. Just grit your teeth,” Dr Ismail said, adding the rate must be minimum and affordable.

Dr Ismail, who was Health Director General from 2005 to 2011, said that after a national health financing system is introduced, the Health Ministry could be decentralised by creating “area health authorities” to oversee health matters in their own zones.