KUALA LUMPUR: Affordability is one of the main reasons why many Malaysians don’t have an insurance policy, said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng (pix).
He said the proposed insurance penetration rate of 75% by next year might not be achievable. He pointed out that the present insurance penetration rate was 55%.
“The government will have to relook at the 75% rate that was set by the previous government. The revision of the rate will depend on what new policies the government will be able to introduce,“ he told reporters after the official opening ceremony of Menara Prudential here today.
Lim said one of the most under represented group that has very little insurance coverage is the B40 group and as such the government introduced the MySalam insurance scheme to provide free coverage for this group.
“If someone falls ill under this scheme they will get a one-off payment of RM8,000. This scheme covers the 36 critical illnesses.
“Those admitted to hospitals will get a payment of RM50 a day for 14 days to help them out, this works out to RM700 a year. It will only apply to those who are admitted to government hospitals.”
Lim said this is move will help close the gap of those who do not have any coverage and to reach the government’s set target.
He said there are some targets that the government has achieved and gone beyond whilst there are some it has been unable to meet.
He cited the example of the national fibre coverage which had set the target of 20% but under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government it had hit 21%.
“We will not sweep things under the rug, unlike the previous Barisan Nasional government that presented a picture that everything was good by hiding problems from the people.
“If we cannot achieve a target we will say so and we will also study the underlying problem as to why we were not able to reach it.
“We will be truthful with the people, “ Lim said.
On the attack against him by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and MCA president Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong over the “buy Muslim-made products”, he said attacks on him by them was nothing new.
“These are people who have no substance, so there is nothing else they can do but hit out at me,“ he said.
