The number of hospitals covered by MySalam, the free national health protection scheme for the low-income or B40 group who undergo medical treatment at government hospitals, has been widened to include five university hospitals and five military hospitals.

This is to enable patients to receive further treatment from specialist doctors, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said in a statement today.

The five university hospitals are the University of Malaya Medical Centre (Kuala Lumpur), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (Kuala Lumpur), International Islamic University Malaysia Medical Centre (Kuala Lumpur), Universiti Sains Malaysia Hospital (Kelantan), and UiTM Hospital in Sungai Buloh (Selangor).

The military hospitals are Hospital Angkatan Tentera (HAT) Tuanku Mizan in Kuala Lumpur, HAT Lumut (Perak), HAT Terendak Camp (Melaka), Hospital Tentera Darat, Gemas (Negeri Sembilan), and HAT Wilayah Kota Kinabalu (Sabah).

Patients will be able to receive treatment at these hospitals after getting a specialist doctor's confirmation to be beneficiaries of MySalam, a takaful protection scheme launched in January this year through the government's collaboration with Great Eastern Takaful Bhd.

The scheme provides an RM8,000 one-off lump sum payment if beneficiaries are diagnosed with any of the 36 critical illnesses including cancer, heart disease, muscular dystrophy and Alzheimer's. There is also a daily hospitalisation allowance of RM50, up to a maximum of RM700 a year.

Great Eastern Holdings contributed an initial seed funding of RM2 billion to the MySalam trust fund.

- Bernama