KUALA LUMPUR: The mySalam social health protection scheme, administered by the Finance Ministry, has benefited 1.88 million Malaysians, with total claims paid amounting to RM1.423bil as of Dec 31 last year, says Datuk Fahmi Fadzil (pic).
The Communications Minister said the programme, which was launched in 2019 with an allocation of RM2.37bil, currently provides coverage to eligible Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah recipients and their spouses up to the age of 65.
Fahmi, who is also the Madani government spokesperson, said eligible recipients are entitled to three key benefits: a hospitalisation allowance of RM50 per day for up to 14 days, or RM700 annually; a one-off payment of up to RM8,000 for 50 critical illnesses; and claims of up to RM30,000 for medical devices.
“For the hospitalisation benefit, 1.294 million recipients have received assistance amounting to RM394.87mil,” he told a weekly press conference yesterday, Bernama reported.
He said 89,085 recipients had benefited from the critical illness assistance, with total payouts reaching RM712.68mil, while RM65.257mil had been disbursed to 13,128 recipients under the medical device benefit.
The scheme’s performance was presented at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.
Meanwhile, Fahmi also said the Prime Minister wants ties between Malaysian public higher education institutions and Japanese universities to be strengthened, particularly in exploring advanced research fields such as quantum technology.
“He raised the matter during the Cabinet meeting following his official visit to Japan, which concluded on Wednesday.
“This (quantum technology) is a very important field, including efforts to adopt quantum cryptology and quantum encryption,” he said, adding that such academic collaboration is crucial to driving the nation’s broader digitalisation agenda.
In this regard, Fahmi said the Prime Minister wants to elevate existing partnerships, such as the current collaboration between Keio University and Universiti Malaya.
