Make aliens pay medical bills

Star: KOTA KINABALU: Hospitals nationwide have been instructed to make foreigners pay their bills as the Government cannot afford to subsidise their health cost at the expense of locals.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said hospital directors should be strict to ensure that all outstanding payments were collected from foreigners who used government health facilities.
He said not only were foreigners avoiding paying the medical bills, they were also stealing hospital equipment, including beds in some cases, when they “escaped” or discharged themselves at their own risk from hospitals.
Foreigners make up about 35% of the outpatients and in-patients at hospitals, especially in Sabah.
Dr Chua told reporters that about RM12mil were lost in unpaid health bills nationwide last year.
The foreigners were mainly Indonesians and Filipinos in Sabah, he added.