Govt urged to review health insurance for foreign workers directive

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has been urged to review the directive requiring all foreign workers except domestic maids in the country to have health insurance coverage beginning next year, which is said to benefit only the insurance companies.

The president of the Malaysian Association of Suppliers and Managers of Foreign Workers (TEKAM), Datuk Baharom Abdul Ghani, said based on the maximum premium of RM120 annually involving two million foreign workers in the country, the insurance companies would be collecting approximately RM240 million a year.

"Looking deeper into the matter, the insurance companies would be making a clean profit of more than 90 per cent," he said in a Press statement today.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai recently announced that all foreign workers in the country, except for domestic maids, were required to have health insurance coverage beginning Jan 1, next year.

The enforcement of this requirement is said to ensure that the arrears in hospital bill, which has now reached RM18 million, would not pose a burden to the government.

Baharom said the insurance coverage under the Foreign Workers Compensation Scheme, which had been implemented, was sufficient to ensure the requirement of foreign workers for coverage for health treatment and the compensation for loss of limbs and lives was met.
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Bernama
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 15:01:00