Kuala
Lumpur, Jan 1 (PTI) Foreign labourers, including Indians, employed in Malaysia
as plantations workers and house maids will now be entitled to a medical in
here.
With the new ruling that takes effect today, all foreign workers must be
covered under two insurance schemes: workmen''s compensation insurance that is
paid by employers to cover occupational-related diseases and accidents, and
medical insurance for non-occupational diseases and injuries that is paid by
foreign workers, except for maids and those in plantations.
Medical insurance for maids and plantation workers will be paid by their
employer. The rest of the 1.8 million registered foreign workers must pay for
the policy themselves, Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai told the New Straits
Times yesterday.
It will cost each foreign worker RM120 per year (about 1600 rupees), or RM10
per month, in premiums for the RM10,000 coverage for treatment and
hospitalisation in government hospitals.
Liow said this would resolve some outstanding issues, especially the increasing
amount of unpaid hospital bills owed by foreign workers.
There are more than three million foreign workers.
Of the 1.8 million registered ones, only 75 per cent are covered by the
workmen''s compensation scheme.
As compensation payouts for occupational injury and death in the Malaysian
schemes are below those of neighbouring countries, Liow said the nation''s
image as an employer of foreign labour was at a disadvantage.
"Secondly, we face an increasing amount of unpaid hospital bills, which
increases the burden of healthcare costs on the people."
He said foreign workers owed RM64 million in healthcare bills between 2005 and
2009, of which 19 per cent was for care in government hospitals.
To ease this problem, he said, the government had amended the workmen''s
compensation regulation and imposed mandatory medical insurance on foreign
workers. The amendments will be tabled in Parliament soon.
Liow said 17 insurance companies had applied to participate in the medical
insurance scheme, but the ministry was opening it to all insurance companies.
The ministry, he said, would work with Home Affairs Ministry, Human Resources
Ministry, Immigration Department and insurance companies to carry out the
scheme
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