Rising medical fees ‘killing’ the rakyat?

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BY now you would have heard of the financial hardship faced by an increasing number of people badly affected by the unreasonable spike in medical fees charged by private hospitals.

Inevitably, this has triggered a domino effect prompting the insurance industry to follow suit and raise their medical insurance premium; this of course is sure to force many to cancel their policies and turn to government hospitals.

But, the cruel irony here is that while ordinary people pay up their premiums faithfully, the insurance giants and private hospitals (many of whom may now have their eyes firmly fixed on the lucrative “medical tourism” industry) have now started to blame each other for the rising cost of health care.

To make it worse Bank Negara Malaysia has also waded into the dispute and has blamed “overconsumption”, giving the impression that the guilty ones are the poor, sick people in desperate need of healthcare services.

The truth is that, though both the private hospitals and the insurance industry claim that the costs to their businesses are unsustainable, large businesses in both industries have recorded huge and increased profits this year. How is that?

In fact, according to a recent report by Code Blue (Galen Centre), one prominent hospital group was said to have recorded a staggering net profit of RM 623 million for the second quarter this year, more than double from a year earlier!

Meanwhile, a well-known insurance company was said to have recorded the Group’s profit after tax of about RM1.1 billion for the six months ended June 30, which represents an impressive 33 per cent higher than the same period last year!

That being the case, how can both industries then claim that their businesses may not be “sustainable” because of increasing costs? Is that a blatant lie?

Having said that, the real blame though maybe with the Ministry of Health (MoH) for not regulating the private hospitals (literally allowing them to charge as they like); while BNM may also be guilty of “naively” buying the narrative put forth by the shrewd insurance industry.

The thing is, since it’s now an open secret that the exorbitant fee charged by some private hospitals is the root cause of all the problems, why isn't MoH fixing it?

Thus, to the Minister of Health and BNM the plea from us, the real victims is: please have a heart, it’s the ordinary people who need help - not the multi-billion ringgit private hospitals and insurance businesses!

 * Jeyakumar Joseph is a reader of The Vibes

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MCA: Government intervention needed to solve rising medical costs

AN MCA leader has expressed concern over the country’s medical inflation rate, which has soared to 12.6%, more than twice the global average.

Party vice president Datuk Lawrence Low said this in light of a recent case concerning an accounts assistant executive who recently underwent surgery for a benign tumour who was left shocked by the hefty medical bill which included unnecessary charges.

According to Ain Mat Saad, who was told that the surgery to remove a tumour on her pituitary gland could hit RM80,000, her hospital bill had also included items that she had not asked for, such as wet wipes, a “Fall Risk” wrist band and a warm bag, reported The Star.

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Cutting cost of private healthcare can drive investors away, says group

PETALING JAYA: Reducing the cost of private healthcare services is no simple task, the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) said, citing the complicated relationship between profit and attracting investors.

The association’s president Dr Kuljit Singh said private hospitals in Malaysia have profit margins of between 7% and 11% after tax.

Such margins are comparatively lower than many other healthcare sectors, he said.

“Narrowing these margins further by reducing the cost of services is deemed unsustainable, potentially deterring investment in private healthcare,” he told FMT.

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Malaysia’s escalating private healthcare cost will lead to public hospitals being over-burdened

HEART-attack inducing. That was the observation of Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin on the ever-escalating cost of private healthcare.

In a parliamentary session last week, the PKR lawmaker pointed out that while doctor’s charges are governed by the Fee Act 1957, various extraneous hospital charges are not.

Sim went on to express shock when he was recently informed by his insurance agent that the premium would be increased by 40%. This was due to escalating hospital charges in the private sector.

Sharing his own experiences of such increasing charges, he cited the delivery charges of his three children which increased significantly even though it was a normal procedure – from RM2,000+ in 2010 to RM4,000+ (2012) and RM6,000+ (2014).

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