Private Health Insurance in Malaysia: Policy Options for a Public-Private Partnership

Nik Rosnah Wan Abdullah () and Daniel Ng Kok Eng ()
Additional contact information
Daniel Ng Kok Eng: University of Malaya

International Journal of Institutions and Economies, 2009, vol. 1, issue 2, pages 234-252

Abstract: Private health insurance has become important in the funding of healthcare in Malaysia. However, there have been rising concerns over the role of the private sector in healthcare financing because of illegitimate and unethical practices. This paper addresses these issues by focusing on the operational aspects of private health insurance to examine whether there are differences in charges between the insured and non-insured patients in Malaysia. The findings are based on an assessment of hospital bills of two groups of private hospitals. The findings of the study show that there is no difference in charges between the insured and the non-insured patients. The findings also show that the private sector has learned to work within the regulatory boundaries so as to be professional in the execution of their services. However, the study points to some informational problems faced by the insured. Although this is an exploratory study and the findings may not enable a conclusive generalization of the practices of private hospitals in Malaysia, it is hoped that inferences can be made by policy makers so as to enable them to design sound and prudent policies on healthcare finance. (Please purchase for further reading).

Keywords: Unethical practices; regulation; healthcare finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G22 G28 I18 I19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009

Downloads: (external link)
http://ijie.um.edu.my/RePEC/umk/journl/v1i2/a3.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:umk:journl:v:1:y:2009:i:2:p:234-252

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Institutions and Economies from Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Professor Dr. Rajah Rasiah ().