The fingers have started to point. Insurance companies are saying that the rise in premiums for the man on the street is a result of high medical costs.
Meanwhile, the medical fraternity is saying that the high medical cost is due to high insurance coverage - not for the patients but for their medical doctors facing escalating lawsuits for negligence in medical procedures.
It appears that there is no common ground between them, except for the fact that both parties made record profits in their annual returns.
The government is finally stepping in with the setting up of a parliamentary select committee to hear from all parties regarding this impasse.
Many stories and explanations were abound from both sides of the fraternity but one that was quite astounding was the personal experience of the CEO of the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia ( LIAM ) who was slapped with a 13-page hospital bill of close to RM 19,000 for a minor hernia surgery several months ago. ( https://codeblue.galencentre.org/2024/08/liam-ceo-stunned-by-13-page-hospital-bill-for-rm19000-minor-hernia-surgery/ )
In case you don’t have time to read the details of the news, what I found to be most mind boggling was charging the patient RM 53.60 for the use of a digital blood pressure monitor and RM 57.40 for the use of a Pulse Oximeter.
I am not sure how many times the two machines were used on the patient to deserve such an exhorbitant fee. After all the patient claimed he only stayed for only one night in the medical centre.
We better be grateful that the use of these two machines are free at every pharmacy. How it turned out to be so costly the moment we entered into a different facility is truly beyond me. These two simple and cheap machines in the hands of a medical centre must have the highest ROI one can imagine.
Several years ago, my head was spinning and my wife had to send me to a private hospital for treatment. I knew from my historical record that it was just another bout of vertigo but happened to be more severe than normal.
Upon reaching the outpatient department, I was immediately ushered to an ENT specialist. Nothing wrong with my ears. Then I was wheeled back to the outpatient emergency room.
The station nurse started inserting a needle into a vein of my right arm. I asked her what she was doing.
“We will need to admit you in a short while for further observation. This needle is for our ease of taking blood samples later,” she declared.
I knew from past experiences that all I needed was just a drip for my vertigo and therefore saw no reason why I need to be admitted.
I looked at the nurse nonchalantly and said : “But I don’t have any medical insurance coverage.”
And you know what happened next?
The nurse look at me in the eye, thought for a split second and proceeded with removing the needle from my arm.
She disappeared to consult the doctor on duty and they decided to put me on drips instead. An hour later, I was up and bouncing, feeling famished and eagerly looking forward to a feast.
The whole episode lasted about three hours and cost me RM 600 before I was discharged. It would probably have cost me 10 times more had I been admitted.
I am sure the medical fraternity will be quick to point out that it is their professional duty to provide a thorough examination of a patient before arriving at a proper diagnosis. After all, failure to do so may opened themselves to legal suits for medical negligence.
Therefore, having a medical insurance coverage may well be a double edge sword. On the one hand, it certainly is a financial blessing in the face of a medical treatment. On the other, it may subject you to some unnecessary medical procedures.
As to the rising cost of medicare insurance premium, let’s hope the parliamentary select committee will be able to come up with some fruitful recommendations to alleviate the burden of the rakyat as well as ease the congestion of public health care facilities.
Perhaps they can consider imposing a certain amount of profit from both the insurers and the private medical facilities into a fund which can be used to either expand our public health care system or even set up dedicated health care centres for the lower income group.
If the Housing Ministry can impose all sorts of conditions on property developers to help the lower income group to own a home, I don’t see why the Health Ministry cannot do something of similar nature.
Vincent Lim is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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