Malaysians have poor health coverage

PUTRAJAYA: Almost half of the Malaysian population rely solely on healthcare coverage provided by the government, a survey by the Health Ministry shows.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba said 46% of Malaysian adults do not have any form of supplementary financial coverage for their healthcare needs and rely on existing tax-funded healthcare coverage.

About 71% of the poorest 20% in the country, he added, do not have additional healthcare coverage besides what is already provided by the government.

“The majority of Malaysians (81%) used their income to pay for health services while about 36% used their savings, and about 11% of Malaysians had to borrow from family and friends,” he said when launching the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2019 at the ministry headquarters here yesterday.

The survey also found that only 22% of Malaysians were covered by personal health insurance.

Among the reasons for not having personal health insurance are not being able to afford it (43%) and deeming it as unnecessary (36%).

Dr Adham added that there was a higher percentage of Malaysians who utilised in-patient government healthcare services (76%) compared to private facilities (24%).