It was not too long ago, the budget 2019 of new Malaysia was delivered by the new government. Everyone was buzzing over a lot on the budget. So much that many actually missed a very important announcement on Malaysia’s new health insurance plan.
So here’s what we found so far, to kick-start this initiative Great Eastern Life Malaysia will contribute RM 2 billion as seeding fund. This fund will be managed by Bank Negara Malaysia. There’s also possibility of the fund to grow larger with the participation of other insurance companies in Malaysia.
Health insurance plan for B40 group
Health insurance has always been a big part of risk management. It’s in fact one of the most affordable form of insurance that anyone can buy. However, there are still many of them that can’t afford it, especially the B40 group. With this Malaysia’s new health insurance plan, the B40 group is in luck because starting 1st Jan, 2019, this plan will provide free protection against top 4 critical illness with the coverage of up to RM 8,000 and 14 days of hospitalization income capped at RM 50 per day.
This amount of coverage will definitely suffice for treatment at our Government Hospitals. This plan is great for the B40 group but what about the M40 group? Even though many will think that the M40 group are well insured, simply because they can afford it but that’s not the case. The M40 group are tied down with many commitments. It’s the consumer behaviour in Malaysia, the more they earn, the more the spend but they never invest more nor plan more.
So here’s a food for thought, it’s hard for many Malaysian’s to put aside a bit of their spending money for the benefit of risk management and probably that’s the same case for our neighbour down south. However, our neighbour down south fixed that problem by allowing their people to buy insurance through CPF (our equivalent of EPF). How great is that!
EPF vs CPF
Just incase you didn’t know, CPF contribution from employee is actually at 20% versus EPF contribution from employee of 11%. That’s 9% higher than us but that 9% enabled the members to buy better health insurance plans from private insurance companies. This is actually a form of forced savings, many of us can’t save money but when it’s forced savings like EPF, we will accept and abide it.
In my personal opinion, our neighbour down south got it right on this matter. This fix not only enables the people to get better treatment, it also saves the country a lot of money. The thing about putting aside money for insurance is, the moment you don’t need to pull it out from your wallet or see it being charged to your credit card, you’ll be very happy. If Malaysia ever adopts this fix, I’m sure the insured rate in Malaysia will increase and almost everyone can afford private health care if needed.
That’s it from us at FINPosts. If you’ll like to know more about health insurance planning, click on this link : Guide to proper medical coverage. Before you go off and read other articles from us, leave us a comment or let us know your thoughts at the comment box below. We are always happy to hear from you.
Just incase you didn’t know what’s B40 & M40, click here to know more.
