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BNM will require a co-payment option in health insurance by this Sept at a minimum 5%, no cap stated.
For example, if an insured patient receives an RM50,000 hospital bill, a 5% co-payment means the patient has to pay RM2,500 in cash out of pocket, despite having regularly paid premiums.
Deputy Finance Minister Lim Hui Ying told the Dewan Rakyat special chambers last July 1 that BNM's new co-payment policy is aimed at incentivising “more responsible usage of health care services” to reduce costs on insurance providers, citing medical inflation and the “buffet table syndrome” as the main drivers of a rise in health insurance premiums.
In response, the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy points out that no one wants to get a chronic illness like kidney failure, cardiovascular disease, or cancer just to utilise their insurance coverage.
“By introducing a co-payment feature which will eventually replace existing products, insured patients could face large out-of-pocket payments beyond their means in the case of a major illness,” says Galen Centre CEO Azrul Mohd Khalib.
“Ironically, it could create the very situation which individuals expect to be protected from by having health insurance.”
The Galen Centre expects people to cancel their health insurance policies with the introduction of co-payments and go to the public health care system instead, thus increasing demand on already overloaded government hospitals and health care clinics.
“Is Bank Negara’s new policy requirement ultimately going to be of more benefit to insurers and private hospitals, rather than patients and their families?”
Read more:
codeblue.galencentre.org/2024/07/05/gal…
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