A plan that will surely backfire ...

Categories: Malaysia

The Malaysian Deputy Human Resources Minister, Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar, announced yesterday that all workers in the public and private sectors will have to undergo psychiatric tests at least once a year. They will also be subjected to blood and urine tests. He was quoted as saying, "From blood and urine tests, we will know the number of workers suffering from mental disorders, HIV/ AIDS, drug and alcohol addiction, and other ailments."

Currently not much details had been issued. This news seems to have caught the country's workers union puzzled as they were not consulted and not aware of the plan. Even officials at his ministry were unsure when the plan would be implemented.

What is the rationale behind such plan? According to the Deputy Minister, once the result is out, the employer will be able to decide which employee will need help and where to refer them. Isn't this wishful thinking? The idea behind it is noble, but in reality how many employees are lucky enough to have a caring employer let alone one who will look after them?

Is such a plan necessary or even realistic? Currently, a pre-employment medical check-up is a pre-requisite for most of vacancies. Although this is not an annual affair, it is usually adequate to monitor the health of the worker. Since the work force generally hails from the younger age group, one should expect these workers to be healthy in the majority of cases. As it is, the pick-up rate for the 'diseased' is minimal. If all 11 million workers were to be subjected to annual check-ups, the cost will be exorbitant. However, the pick-up rate for the 'diseased' should differ much as Malaysia's populations are generally healthy. Therefore, this idea doesn't seem necessary.

Malaysia's health service is already plagued by shortages in doctors and nurses. If this plan is to be implemented, this would further burden the health case system. Imagine adding another 11 million 'patients' to the current system. Would it burst the seams of the already strained healthcare?

By making such a check-up compulsory, how will it affect the workforce? Currently Malaysia is already having a five-day work week. If workers are compelled to go for check-up, wouldn't this further reduce the 'work week'? This will erode the competitive edge.

A big question will be that of cost. The price tag for such an exercise is exorbitant. Imagine paying RM20 per person for a check-up. This will amount to RM220 million per year! To make such a check-up yearly will certainly drained the country's resources for something of questionable value.

Another cost-related question is who will foot the bill? Should it be the employee, the employer or the government? It is unlikely that the government will foot the cost for all the 11 million workers given the exorbitant price tag. Employers will find such expenses rather unnecessary as they are only concern with the bottom line and not the health of the employee. Compelling employer to foot the bill will also drive up the operating cost and therefore the competitiveness of companies here. If employees were made to pay, this will create a lot of unhappiness especially those in the lower income group and the daily-rated.

Having addressed the necessity of the plan, we much look at the implications next. If an employee failed a medical check-up, what is the implication?

Ideally, the company should refer them for treatment - as what was mentioned by the Deputy Minister. But as mentioned before, this is an ideal. More likely, the worker will face difficulties if he fails the check-up.

In reality, if a worker were found to have psychiatric disease or HIV/AIDS, the first thing the employer will do is to terminate his services. This is just being realistic. How many employer is willing to pay for medical care of the employee? Nowadays, we are seeing more and more Managed Health Care (MHC) scheme. Under this scheme, a employer will pay a certain amount of money to a MHC company. This MHC company will then pay the medical expenses of the employee. This sound noble enough until one realised that MHCs are for profit company. This means that they will try to reduce healthcare 'cost' by limiting the payment made on behalf of the employee by several means. Altruistic ideals certainly does not feature in such schemes. Therefore to cut cost, the most likely outcome is termination.

A worker who had failed such check-ups will face a bleak future. Not only will he lose his current job, he will have trouble finding a new one. In this time of job scarcity, certainly job prospect will be further weakened.

The worker's misfortune will not end there. Now he will have problem buying insurance! Any person who had bought insurance before will know that once you have a disease or very likely to get a certain disease, you are not covered for the said condition. If you are lucky, they will insure you but at a higher premium. Imagine if the report says that you are likely to have a mental disease where are you going to buy any insurance? I am saying 'likely' because diagnosis of a psychiatric condition is never absolute.

Given so many negative consequences of the plan, it is hoped that the Deputy Minister gives it a thorough thought before implementing it. It would be a shame if this plan brings more problem than what it tried to solve. Equally shameful will be when it will have to be terminated after its implementation due to impracticality. Therefore I strongly urge the Deputy Minister to reconsider before the employees are further victimise by an unnecessary and impractical scheme.

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