PETALING JAYA, July 24 — Many cancer patients in Malaysia are falling into bankruptcy or turning to illegal moneylenders to finance their treatment, according to the National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM).
Dr Murallitharan Munisamy, managing director of NCSM, said that people living with cancer are increasingly among those seeking debt restructuring or filing for bankruptcy through the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK).
“A lot of people who go to AKPK to declare bankruptcy are actually people with cancer conditions,” Dr Murallitharan said at the Cancer Financing Summit 2025 here last June 20. “The largest number of people with ah long problems — ah long are your loan sharks — are also people with cancer. It speaks very sadly to the state of the situation.”
Dr Murallitharan attributed this trend to a lack of structured, accessible financial tools to support patients through treatment, especially those diagnosed with late-stage cancers requiring long-term care. He said many are left to navigate the system on their own, relying on personal savings, asset pawning, family loans, and high-interest debt.
Citing data from the insurance industry, Dr Murallitharan said less than 25 per cent of Malaysians have medical insurance. Even among those who are insured, many face restrictions on claim approvals and benefit limits, particularly for chronic illnesses like cancer.
Many cancer patients seeking care from the private sector are forced to self-finance through savings, asset sales, or informal borrowing. Dr Murallitharan said that in the absence of better pooling or subsidy systems, individuals now mimic health systems at a micro level — raising revenue, rationing care, and managing benefits, but without institutional backing.
“These are exactly the same health financing functions that you have for a health system, but you’re also seeing it at the individual level,” he said.
Dr Murallitharan added that new financing models, including those already used in other sectors, could be adapted to health care — such as microfinancing and buy now, pay later (BNPL) arrangements. He said BNPL mechanisms are widely used for retail purchases, such as televisions or electronics, and could be retooled for bite-sized health payments.
“Shopee does it. Touch ‘n Go does it. All your credit cards do it… But we have not worked this out for health care,” he said. “And I think that’s an area in which it can assist.”
Last Monday, the Dewan Rakyat passed the Consumer Credit Bill that will require companies offering BNPL schemes to check customers’ debt capability before approving their credit facility.
Deputy Finance Minister Lim Hui Ying told Parliament that the volume of BNPL transactions increased from 83.8 million in the second half of 2024 to 102.6 million in the first half of this year. The total value of BNPL transactions in the first six months of 2025 amounted to RM9.3 billion.
Cancer Screening Model Ties Financial Aid To Income, With Endowment As Safety Net
In response to gaps in preventive care financing, local technology company Theta Edge Bhd proposed a conceptual model called Cancer AccessFlex to support access to cancer screening, particularly for gig workers and those in the M40 income group not covered by existing public subsidies.
Theta Edge group managing director and CEO Nuraslina Zainal Abidin said the model is built around a digital platform that enables co-payments, where patients contribute a small upfront fee and the balance is temporarily financed.
Theta, a subsidiary of Lembaga Tabung Haji and listed on Bursa Malaysia’s Main Market, operates in sectors including mobility technology, smart infrastructure, digital health, and pilgrimage logistics.
The financing model would incorporate income- and needs-based subsidy “triggers” that activate support from zakat institutions, ESG-aligned corporate donors, social protection agencies, or a proposed endowment fund managed by NCSM.
“This is not a final product or a proven implementation. It’s a concept, an evolving idea,” Nuraslina said. “They are not poor enough to receive zakat, but not rich enough to act quickly.”
NCSM would handle eligibility verification and clinical triage, while fintech providers would manage payment scheduling, subsidy automation, and reporting. The platform aims to approve financing within 48 hours of a screening referral.
To protect patient dignity, those unable to repay would not be penalised. Instead, outstanding balances in hardship cases would be absorbed by the proposed endowment fund.
“We are not building a loan platform here. Let’s be clear. We are building a trust and relief platform — one that connects the patient journey to the financing ecosystem in real time, ethically and with measurable impact,” said Nuraslina.
Although still at the concept stage, the model targets a narrow but critical gap in cancer care — the financial hesitation that delays screenings.
Procedures such as mammograms, chest X-rays, and biopsies typically cost between RM300 and RM3,000, a price point out of reach for many in informal employment.
Nuraslina said most insurance policies cover treatment for major illnesses but often exclude preventive services. “That’s the gap we’re trying to fill.”
The proposal suggests piloting Cancer AccessFlex with NCSM, fintech providers, and both public and private funders. A Cancer Screening Relief Pool could eventually be set up with contributions from the Ministry of Health, employers, insurers, zakat institutions, and ESG donors.
