By Nasuha Badrul Huzaini
SHAH ALAM, July 27 — The state government seeks to expand the scope of Iltizam Selangor Sihat (ISS) and increase the number of recipients for the programme.
Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari said the move, under the First Selangor Plan (RS-1), will empower the health sector in Selangor.
“ISS is a health insurance scheme for low-income groups to help reduce their healthcare cost burdens when getting treatment at private healthcare centres.
“This scheme offers RM500 in protection per year for family category policyholders, and RM200 per year for single individual category policyholders.
“By expanding the protection scope and increasing the number of participants, we are confident this programme will be of help to those in need,” he said when tabling RS-1 during the Selangor State Legislative Assembly, here today.
ISS offers the people of Selangor up to RM500 in financial help for basic medical care, including outpatient costs and vaccinations.
Amirudin added that apart from health protection, the state government will also focus on the aspect of food nutrition, especially for children.
“In the previous Budget tabling, we set up the Anak Selangor Anak Sihat (Asas) programme for children from low-income families as part of the effort to reduce the prevalence of stunted growth and malnutrition among them.
“Under RS-1, we will broaden the programme to curb the problem of malnutrition among children. In doing so, we expect this will have a long-term positive impact by reducing the number of patients for diseases caused by malnutrition,” he added.
On June 28, Selangor’s public health advisers said the state government will distribute nutritional food packs to about 720 eligible children via the Asas programme.
Dr Mohammad Farhan Rusli said the packs will be distributed for five consecutive months to children aged one to six.
The Asas food packs will provide recipients with full cream milk powder, cracker biscuits, cereals and multivitamins to help calcium absorption and to strengthen their bones.
