KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 – mySalam has approved 626 claims in Sabah as of November 30, with a total payout below RM1 million.
In a parliamentary reply, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said that the total payout by the health protection scheme — which is run by insurance company Great Eastern under the Finance Ministry’s purview — until the end of November was RM911,500 for Sabah.
“As of Nov 30, the total number of claims approved under the mySalam scheme was 626 claims, with a total payment of RM911,500,” he said yesterday.
“Of the 626, 531 were for hospital benefit and 95 were for critical illness.”
He also stated that single persons who are above 40 years old and earn less than RM2,000 per month will also be included as eligible beneficiaries.
“mySalam is also working with Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) to provide a service kiosk at major hospitals across the country.
“Each state is expected to have a kiosk by the end of 2019. Sabah has three kiosks so far, two of which will be opened in the near future subject to hospital management approval,” he said.
Puncak Borneo MP Willie Mongin, in his additional question, asked if the government is planning to upgrade the mySalam website to include a place for people to find out if they are eligible for the scheme by keying in their IC number, as the current method of using SMS might not be useful to rural people who may not own a mobile phone.
“All issues that are identified will be given due attention. If there is a problem, I ask the people to send an email to mySalam. If there are any further problems, please share it with the ministry so we can take further action,” Lim answered.
Singapore-based insurance company Great Eastern Holdings gave the Malaysian government RM2 billion for mySalam — a scheme that pays the bottom 40 per cent RM8,000 lump sum cash when diagnosed with a critical illness from last January 1 — in exchange for not divesting 30 per cent of their shareholdings to local investors under Bank Negara rules.
The Malaysian government in turn pays Great Eastern the insurance premiums of mySalam beneficiaries, about RM400 million annually for five years. According to Ayer Hitam MP Wee Ka Siong, mySalam has only paid out about RM3 million as of September 30 since the scheme began last January.
