KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 — The Joint Ministerial Committee on Private Healthcare Costs (JMCPHC) says it aims to pilot the government’s Base MHIT product by the end of next month.
In response to the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) report tabled in Parliament yesterday on a rise in health insurance premiums and private hospital charges, the JMCPHC said it recognised the importance of these issues in the broader health care system.
“The PAC’s recommendations are broadly aligned with the direction of the Reset strategy and reinforce its call to accelerate reform. JMCPHC will give them careful consideration as it continues to expedite the reforms already underway,” said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on behalf of the committee in a brief statement today.
“Since the launch of the Reset Strategy, JMCPHC has sustained strong, coordinated efforts across the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Bank Negara Malaysia and key stakeholders in the health care and insurance ecosystem, addressing both the immediate and structural drivers of health care cost inflation while ensuring continued access to quality healthcare for Malaysians.
“Significant progress has been made across the Reset initiatives of reforms, with the base MHIT plan set to enter its pilot implementation phase by the end of July.
“Other key initiatives include the phased adoption of Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG) as a provider payment mechanism, greater transparency around the prices and drivers of medical inflation, stronger data standards, and strengthened dispute resolution channels, reflecting a whole-of-nation collaboration among policymakers, regulators, payors and providers.”
The MOH did not explain how a medical and health insurance/takaful (MHIT) product could be “piloted”, given that people would be spending their money immediately upon purchase of the product.
Conventional MHIT products in the private market have waiting periods of at least three to four months before claims can be made, but doctors have also cited frequent denials of claims made within two years of a policy.
JMCPHC – which is co-chaired by Finance Minister II Amir Hamzah Azizan and Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad – has never publicly stated if waiting periods for its base MHIT product would be waived for a pilot or if policyholders would get their money back from insurance and takaful operators (ITOs) if the “pilot” didn’t work the way the government intended.
During a debate on the PAC’s report in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, most MPs pushed the government for legal and regulatory reform of the entire private health insurance and health care system, beyond the Reset initiative.
