New health insurance scheme for foreign students

Malay Mail: KUALA LUMPUR: Islamic insurers Takaful Ikhlas Sdn Bhd, MAA Takaful Bhd and FOSMEC Sdn Bhd signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday to provide comprehensive health insurance coverage for foreign students under the care of FOSMEC.
They would market these products from January next year.
Takaful Ikhlas president and chief executive officer Datuk Syed Moheeb Syed Kamarulzaman said the product was specifically designed for full-time international students to meet the health checkup and insurance coverage guidelines et by the Higher Education Ministry since July 1, 2008.
“Takaful Ikhlas will prostudentsvide group hospital and surgical coverage while MAA Takaful will provide the group personal accident product,” he said.
The services covered under this package are outpatient treatment, inpatient treatment, personal accident and death and repatriation. Monthly payments for the new coverage includes two separate premium prices.
The premium for MAA Takaful is set at RM50 per annum, providing RM50,000 in coverage with an additional RM10,000 for death reparation, while RM56 per annum gets similar premium coverage but death reparation is raised to RM20,000.
The insurance premium for Takaful Ikhlas product would depend on the health condition of the buyer and the combined premiums for both insurances cannot exceed RM300 set by the government.
For starters, Takaful Ikhlas has set a RM4 million target for premiums under the plan, added Syed Moheed.
FOSMEC chairman Datuk Wira Dr Bahari Abu Mansor said this is the first insurance scheme that provides such coverage for foreign students.
“Previously, insurance coverage for this category of students was either one of the two schemes.” he said.
It was reported that Higher Education Ministry recorded an increase of 7,000 students at private institutions of higher learning every year. The government hopes to reach a total of 200,000 foreign students locally by 2015, turning Malaysia into a higher education hub.
Bahari said: “We see this initiative as a measure to help attain that goal as more students will find Malaysia an attractive education destination.
It will also help to lighten the burden of government hospitals tasked to treat foreign students. “FOSMEC hopes that with this new insurance package, the government will consider making FOSMEC the sole agency for all foreign student health screens,” he said.
FOSMEC is an agency responsible for conducting and supervising foreign students medical examination check up, health screening and to prevent dangerous and infected disease subject to the directives from the Higher Education Ministry.