KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today said Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Health Ministry (MOH) will establish controls to ensure medical insurance premiums will not rise too steeply to the extent of burdening the people and leading to increase in inflation.
He said BNM, along with the Finance Ministry and MOH, is looking into it, and will issue strict guidelines to ensure medical and health insurance and takaful providers, as well as insurers and takaful operators, consider several factors.
“The (inevitable) increase is due to the lower threshold in Malaysia, with high medical costs and expensive services, according to the explanation given by insurance companies.
“However, MOH and BNM are working closely to ensure the increase is reasonable and does not burden the people,” he said during Ministers’ Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Anwar was replying to Suhaizan Kaiat (PH-Pulai), who asked about the government’s measures to address the rise in medical insurance premiums by 40 to 70 per cent and the 12.6 per cent inflation rate in the country’s medical costs in 2023, more than twice the global average of 5.6 per cent.
The Prime Minister said that among reasons for the increase in medical costs are the price of medicine and new medical equipment, and increasing wage rates.
“Now there is no control and, for decades, there has been a monopoly in the purchase of medicine, that is why we will cancel commitments to one or two companies.
“We have asked the MOH, as several countries have done, to travel to several countries to obtain cheaper and more affordable generic medicines. These generic medicines are more popular in Brazil, India and China, for example, which are studied and not necessarily tied to the United States or Europe, which are too costly,” he said.
Anwar gave the example of a large company that sells medicines for RM5,000 to Malaysia due to monopoly and lax control, but then sells the same drug in Thailand for only RM1,500.
He said the government will introduce guidelines on standardising costs known as diagnosis-related groups regarding reasonable costs such as for magnetic resonance imaging or computerised tomography scans, besides amending the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998.
The Prime Minister said the MOH was also implementing the Rakan KKM programme in collaboration with government-linked investment companies so patients can choose from several additional facilities at minimal cost.
In reply to Datuk Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi (PN-Kuala Langat) on whether the government would control private hospital medical charges, Anwar said he accepts a reasonable rate of increase in charges, but it should be controlled so there is no excessive profit.
However, Anwar said, in general, the cost of treatment in Malaysia is still competitive compared with neighbouring countries, with private hospitals receiving more foreign patients.
— Bernama
