Foreigners to pay more at government hospitals

Star: Foreigners will have to pay much higher charges for medical treatment from next year as the Government moves to provide better healthcare for its citizens.
Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said foreigners would no longer enjoy health subsidies given to locals and they would be classified as full paying patients.
The new rates, he said, would be based on the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) schedule of fees for private practitioners and hospitals but said the actual charges would be fixed later.
Currently, they pay charges levied on local first class patients, which are much lower, compared to fees in the private sector. Among the first class charges imposed on them since June last year are (third class charges in brackets):

·Outpatient treatment - RM15 (RM1)
· Normal childbirth delivery - RM500 (RM10)
·Caesarean section - RM1,000 (about RM100)

Charges for normal childbirth delivery under MMA schedule is RM800 while caesarean section costs RM2,250.
Dr Chua said the decision to impose full payment was made following the discovery of foreigners cheating to get treatment and also to avoid “flooding” of foreign citizens in government hospitals.
“Last year, we implemented the first class charges for foreigners in government hospitals and the number of outpatients dropped from more than 500,000 to 337,000.
“However, the number of patients warded increased from 50,000 to 64,000 as many of them used false documents and disappeared before settling their bills, making it hard to trace them.
“As many as 26% of foreign inpatients don’t pay up compared to only 10% of our citizens,” Dr Chua said, adding that the new rates would be implemented in stages.
Dr Chua said the Government subsidised 98% of medical costs for Malaysians and it felt only the locals should enjoy the subsidy.
“We don’t want the hospitals to be flooded with foreigners as they make up 20% of patients in the maternity wards in some hospitals in Sabah.
“This is a heavy burden for the Government in terms of human resources and finances,” he told reporters before having a dialogue with Chinese community leaders here yesterday.
Dr Chua said Sabah, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Johor had the most number of foreign patients.
He said revenue collected from foreign citizens rose from RM16.9mil in 2002 to RM31.56mil last year but there was also an increase in the arrears - from RM6.1mil to RM11.33mil.
In June 2004, the Health Ministry had increased the fees for foreigners seeking outpatient treatment from third class charges to first class at government hospitals and clinics.
Dr Chua said the increase was to encourage foreigners to seek treatment at private hospitals as they constituted 3.8% or 1.8 million of the 48 million patients who sought outpatient treatment.
He said the move was also to give Malaysians priority to public healthcare services.