Nik Rosnah Wan Abdullah () Daniel Ng Kok Eng () (University of Malaya)
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).
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Volume (Year): 1 (2009) Issue (Month): 2 (October) Pages: 234-252 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract),
plain text
(with abstract),
BibTeX,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF
Find related papers by JEL classification: G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health I19 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Other