Umno Youth Urges Ministry To Reveal Names Of Medical Aid Recipients

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 (Bernama) -- Umno Youth will ask the Health Ministry to announce the names of people who receive assistance under the Medical Aid Fund.
Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the movement's Exco which met on Monday called for the list of recipients to be made public to answer allegations that the fund did not benefit people who needed it most.
He said he would discuss the matter with Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek.
"We give the new minister a chance. The previous Health Minister was different. Nobody knew who received contributions. Only the minister was allowed to give an explanation," he told reporters after the Youth Exco meeting.
Hishammuddin said Umno Youth viewed the matter seriously since the fund was created on the initiative of the Youth's community protection and welfare bureau chairman Datuk Subahan Kamal and MCA public complaints bureau chairman Datuk Michael Chong.
The fund to provide assistance to poor people suffering from chronic diseases was launched last year but only RM6.1 million had been released to patients out of the RM100 million allocation.
The fund replaced the National Health Welfare Fund.
Dr Chua said recently very few applications for assistance had been made to the fund.
The statement prompted several newspapers to carry reports about individuals who claimed they found it hard to get aid from the fund and some patients with chronic diseases had died without receiving any aid.