Govt to introduce B40 Health Protection Fund
KUALA LUMPUR: The government, in partnership with the private insurance industry, will introduce a national B40 Health Protection Fund for the low income groups in January next year, says Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.
He said the fund would provide free protection against four major illnesses of up to RM 8,000 and a maximum of 14 days of hospitalisation income (during treatment) at RM50 per day or equivalent to RM700 per year.
“The government is grateful to Great Eastern Life Insurance for agreeing to contribute the initial seed funding of RM2 billion to the fund that will be managed by Bank Negara Malaysia.”
“The government expects the size of the fund to grow with more partnership and contributions from other insurance companies,” he said when tabling the 2019 Budget in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
Meanwhile, Lim also said the government to allocate nearly RM29 billion to Health Ministry, an increase of 7.8 per cent compared to the previous year. He said the allocation include RM10.8 billion to upgrade and improve the quality of health services at the clinics and hospitals and to purchase medicines and equipment. “The Health Ministry will introduce Health Protection Scheme (PEKA), a nationwide health screening programme for 800,000 individuals, aged 50 and above, from the B40 households at a cost of RM100 million,” he said. “To protect women’s health, we are allocating a total of RM20 million to provide free mammogram screening, PVHPV vaccination as well as pap smear tests for 70,000 women. He said a total of RM50 million was also allocated to treat rare diseases, Hepatitis C virus, stunted growth among children and to provide more haemodialysis treatments and Enhanced Primary Healthcare (EnPHC). - Bernama