KUALA LUMPUR, May 22 – The Malaysian Psychiatric Association (MPA) suggested today including mental health treatments in insurance plans.
MPA patron Lee Lam Thye reportedly said MPA has proposed that the Health Ministry work with insurance companies to cover mental health care and treatment.
“Unfortunately, health insurance premiums do not cover the cost of psychiatric services should you require them.
“There is also a limited supply of specialists, including behavioural professionals and psychiatrists,” Lee said in a statement.
Lee pointed out that AIA launched early this year Singapore’s first insurance policy covering mental illness.
The plan called “AIA Beyond Critical Care” covers major depressive disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and Tourette Syndrome.
A 16-year-old girl from Kuching, Sarawak, allegedly took her own life recently, just hours after running an Instagram poll asking her followers to help her choose between life and death. More than two-thirds, 69 per cent, supposedly voted death.
According to the Health Ministry’s Malaysia National Health Accounts (MNHA) report on national health expenditure from 1997 to 2017, private insurance comprised just 7 per cent of Malaysia’s total health expenditure in 2017.
