KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 – Great Eastern will gain RM2 billion in business and data on the bottom 40 per cent (B40) of Malaysian income earners through the mySalam health insurance scheme, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) leader Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj said today.
Malaysiakini reported the former Sungai Siput MP as questioning how the scheme, which is funded by an RM2 billion contribution from Great Eastern Takaful Berhad in exchange for not divesting 30 per cent of its Malaysian business to locals, would benefit the people.
“For Great Eastern, now they don’t have to sell a 30-percent stake to the local arms (Lembaga-lembaga di Malaysia).
“At the same time, they also have gained RM2 billion worth of business in five years,” PSM central committee member Dr Jeyakumar was quoted saying during PSM’s campaign in the Semenyih by-election.
The Finance Ministry has said that the government will use Great Eastern’s RM2 billion contribution to pay back to the insurance company the premiums of 3.69 million Bantuan Sara Hidup cash aid recipients for five years at cost.
Dr Jeyakumar also pointed out that the Singapore-based insurer would have data on over three million Malaysian families.
“Who gave this to them? Is this a donation for them? Or is this a scandal?” he said.
He accused the Pakatan Harapan government of “protecting the big private company, instead of caring about the people’s interests”.
The mySalam scheme promises to give the B40 an RM8,000 one-off payment upon diagnosis of one of 36 critical illnesses, but the government has released very few details about the policy.
