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Malaysia: Govt mulls including those aged over 55 in national health insurance plan

Source: Asia Insurance Review | May 2019

Finance minister Lim Guan Eng has said that the government is prepared to consider a proposal to allow those over 55 to benefit under the MySalam National Protection Scheme, which is targeted at the bottom 40% of the population.
 
Mr Lim said that currently around 3.7m Malaysians aged 18-55 are eligible for the scheme for a period of five years. 
 
He said that the 18-55 age bracket is a standard insurance framework offer. “If more than that (55), it is usually considered uninsurable,” he said.
 
The government, through a partnership with the Great Eastern group, started MySalam on 1 January. Those eligible are automatically enrolled in the system and do not have to pay premiums.
 
Great Eastern Holdings contributed initial seed funding of MYR2bn to the MySalam trust fund, which will cover the first five years of its implementation. The scheme is offered by Great Eastern Takaful, hence all filing of claims will be administered by the takaful provider; while Bank Negara Malaysia will regulate it.
 
Mr Lim said that the government is confident that the fund size would continue to increase in the future, following the participation of other insurance companies and the inclusion of other resources.
 
MySalam is in essence a welfare scheme designed to alleviate the cost of catastrophic health expenditure due to severe medical diagnoses – a one-off payment of MYR8,000 ($1,950) when a person is diagnosed with one of 36 critical illnesses. A 
 
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