I don’t get much medical coverage from my current company. My current outpatient benefit is a measly 2,000 ringgit annually. I can easily finish that before the 7th or 8th month of the calendar with just regular panel clinic visits. If I go for medical checkups or specialist consultations, those will cost from 200 to 500 each per visit. If I want to get inpatient treatment, I need to be hospitalized first if I want to use the other medical insurance. So usually when I have some kind of unresolved injury or ailment, I’ll just grin and bear it.
My wife’s company, on the other hand, offers a generous medical benefit. Thanks to her union, she and my children are covered by her company’s insurance 100%. Meaning, if they were to visit any panel clinics or hospitals, we usually don’t have to pay anything. They get 100% coverage. Well, except that one time when my last child was born and some of the post-delivery treatment was not covered by insurance. Apart from that, we’re good.
But previously, that benefit does not cover the spouse, i.e me. So I don’t get to enjoy all those perks. Recently however, her collective agreement (CA) began to include the spouse, so from this year on, I get to enjoy the same benefits. I didn’t waste time and went to get a consultation appointment with the nearest panel hospital, which is in Bangi. I have this niggling pain on my feet and knee and also tennis elbow on both my elbows (duh). I got steroid injections for both my elbows, but unfortunately, the PRP injection is not covered by insurance because they claim it is for cosmetic purposes. Which is strange because there’s nothing cosmetic about relieving the pain on my feet.
Anyway, the other alternative for PRP is physiotherapy, which I’ve been getting at the same hospital every other week. They attach this device to my feet, which gives tiny electrical jolts to my muscles and bones (I suppose?). I was skeptical at first, but a few weeks later, the pain on my feet has practically gone away. So it does work this electrical jolt thing.
I always moan every time my wife comes home late for work (which is practically every day), but this kind of thing does help to ease the grief. So the moral of the story is, find a company with really good medical benefits if you can. You’ll be very thankful for that as you get older when your body starts to fail you.
