MP SPEAKS | The pathetic attitude and evasive responses of the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia ( APHM), and three associations of insurance companies - Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (Liam), General Insurance Association of Malaysia (Piam) and Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA) - on treating Covid-19 patients in private hospitals irk many concerned citizens and me in the country.

There are 48,150 active Covid-19 patients, and 15 percent of them require treatment in a hospital. With today’s record of 5,298 new cases and an expected continual increase in the next few months, there is no way our public healthcare system can cope. Therefore, enlisting private hospitals which are already equipped with medical facilities and manpower is a necessary measure to meet the immediate need in view of the surge of Covid-19 cases.

APHM‘s reasons for its reluctance to take in patients diagnosed with Covid-19, such as the indirect costs would lower their income and that they have to answer to their shareholders for loss of profit, are unacceptable.

One should be reminded that maintaining public health is the responsibility of both the public and private health service providers, including public and private hospitals alike, pharmaceutical companies and laboratories. It is wrong to treat private hospitals as just a business.

I would not want to see any private hospitals going bankrupt because of taking in Covid-19 patients, and I think none will. But when our healthcare system is facing a crisis, I would expect private hospitals to assume their responsibility as part of our national healthcare system with an open heart and full commitment.

Admittedly, there will be some teething technical issues that need to be settled in integrating private hospitals into the Covid-19 healthcare system, but these are the challenges that the Health Ministry has to resolve together with the private hospitals.

As for insurance companies, while we appreciate their offer to pay for the Covid-19 tests and a daily allowance to patients admitted to public hospitals, we are disappointed with Liam, Piam and MTA for trying to pass the buck when it comes to coverage for Covid-19 patients in private hospitals.

The arguments such as a pandemic, as a rule, is not included in medical policies and that there is insufficient data available for insurance companies to work out the cost of coverage may be true, but they are not problems that cannot be overcome.

I know there is at least one insurance company, AIA, which has taken a more sympathetic approach and readily provides a medical policy that covers hospitalisation costs if a person needs to be admitted to a private hospital due to Covid-19.

I, therefore, urge insurance companies to waive the pandemic exclusion clause in their existing medical policies to allow policyholders to seek treatment in private hospitals.

When the whole nation is at war with the worst pandemic of this century - 30,000 factories and businesses have closed down, hundreds of thousands of workers have lost their jobs and their livelihoods are at stake, a generation of schoolchildren who are unable to attend online classes have missed their lessons for a year now - the nation’s priority should be to contain the pandemic, and to provide treatment to the infected. National interest must be put before maintaining the profitability of private hospitals and insurance companies.

Who is to foot the private hospital bill?

Logically, the patient, the insurance company, the hospital and the government should share the cost of treatment.

For insured patients, the bill goes to the insurance company. For uninsured patients referred by a public hospital to a private hospital, the bill should be partially subsidised by the government using the RM100 million government allocation for this purpose and partially borne by the patients themselves. And for the system to work well, private hospitals must be ready to share the cost by adjusting their charges for treatment and hospital rooms.

At the moment, there are no government guidelines on the charges for Covid-19 patients in private hospitals. I understand that a task force comprising all the stakeholders has been set up to implement the integration plan.

It is important for the task force to work out a fair treatment and hospital room charges for all patients with Covid-19 admitted to private hospitals.

Private hospitals should not charge patients with Covid-19 based on their normal standards which are exorbitant to ordinary folks who are not insured but are referred to private hospitals. A cap on hospital charges will lessen the burden of the insurance companies, patients, and the RM100 million government allocation will be able to subsidise more patients for admission to private hospitals.

DR TAN YEE KEW is PKR's Member of Parliament for Wangsa Maju.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.