Socso spent RM164mil on members’ dialysis

PETALING JAYA: The Social Secu­rity Organisation (Socso) has spent RM164mil on dialysis assistance for its members.

Socso CEO Datuk Dr Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed said it had provided the support to 12,068 members with end-stage renal failure last year.

“Chronic kidney disease is a serious and costly affair but it is preventable with a heightened awareness of one’s own health,” he said.

Of the 33,200 invalidity or death cases reported to Socso last year, 46% (15,173 cases) were due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), totalling RM85.76mil in claims.

Out of this, Dr Azman said cardiovascular disorders and cancer were the two biggest group of diseases, comprising 42% (6,370 cases) and 34.5% (5,229 cases).

Among the 428,985 Socso members who underwent the health screening between 2013 and 2015, several alarming risk factors were identified with cardiovascular diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and hyperlipidaemia (an abnormally high concentration of fats or lipids in the blood), found to be high among workers, he said.

The rate of diabetes was found to be at 9.4% while a further 16.1% had impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose, he said, adding that 27% were also hypertensive, 39.1% overweight, 34.2% obese and 61.7% had high cholesterol.

“This figure is alarming in view of the risk of organ damage and cardiovascular diseases that may result from diabetes,” he said.

Dr Azman said the incidence of invalidity or premature death due to NCDs among its members had doubled in the past 10 years.

The cost of NCDs should not be viewed only through Socso compensation but also the cost to the family, employers, productivity and ultimately, to the nation, he said.

“In a report, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) estimated that Malaysia lost some 4.7% of its GDP from NCDs last year, which amounted to US$16.3bil (RM63.4bil), he said.

“Prevention is the key and em­ployees, employers and the Government alike must play their part,” he said.

Dr Azman added that since its launch in 2013, 2.4 million workers were eligible for the health screening programme.

However, as of March 1, only 452,146 workers had taken up the free screening and 155,067 women, the free mammogram screening.

Last year, only 34,803 free health screening vouchers were used out of the 204,144 vouchers, compared to 85,703 out of 266,840 in 2014.