KUALA LUMPUR, August 18 — mySalam has paid out RM 31,757,050 to low-income policyholders as a whole as of June 30 this year, according to a deputy minister.
This amounts to just 5 per cent of RM600 million the government health protection scheme is meant to have allocated for about one-and-a-half years since it was launched by the-then Pakatan Harapan administration in January 2019.
mySalam is a private-public partnership with Singapore-based insurance company Great Eastern that is meant to contribute RM2 billion to the mySalam fund for five years, or RM400 million a year.
Deputy Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri did not announce the total number of mySalam beneficiaries as of June 30 this year.
The Kudat MP also told the Dewan Rakyat today that in 2020 up till June 30, a total of 518 individuals have received the one-off benefit of RM8,000 cash for critical illness, comprising a total compensation of RM4,144,000.
From January to June 30 this year, a total of 6,597 people received the hospitalisation benefit — which is a daily RM50 capped at 14 days maximum yearly, or RM700 — totalling RM 2,313,800.
Then-Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng previously said that effective January 1 this year, mySalam has expanded its coverage from 36 to 45 critical illnesses, including terminal disease and polio. He also said mySalam paid out about RM14 million to some 10,000 low-income Malaysians last year.
“The government has included Covid-19 as one of the diseases that is covered, those people-under-investigation (PUI) will be given a hospitalisation benefit of RM50 a day and in 14 days, can benefit approximately RM700,” Abdul Rahim told Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong during Question Time in Parliament today.
“In 2019, a total of 2,748 individuals have received the critical illness benefit — RM8,000 for those who have been diagnosed with any of 45 of the critical illnesses — with the amount paid at RM21,984,000.”
Abdul Rahim also mentioned that beneficiaries of the hospitalisation benefit in 2019 comprised 8,946 people, with a total compensation of RM3,315,250.
He told the Dewan Rakyat that the mySalam national health protection scheme is a government initiative aiming at providing free health coverage to individuals aged 18 to 65 from the bottom 40 per cent (B40) income group, who are also the recipients of the Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH) cash aid, approximately over four million people.
The Kudat MP also added that this trust fund of RM2 billion is administered by a board of trustees, while asset management is done by Maybank.
