EPF withdrawal for IVF treatment?
The Malaysian health ministry is mulling over a move to propose to the government that childless couples be allowed to withdraw their savings in the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to undergo various fertility treatments.
Deputy Minister Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin reasoned there was a need for such a withdrawal as the cost incurred to undergo in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) was quite expensive.Even when subsidised by the government, she noted, the cost of one cycle of IVF treatment could reach RM5,000. Butsuccess rate for pregnancy was only between 30 and 40 percent."Based on such a rate, the cost of successful fertility treatment may well climb into tens of thousands of ringgit or even RM100,000," Rosnah said at the Second National Reproductive Medicine Congress in Kuala Lumpur."Though the government is subsidising some parts of the treatment, the amount is often too great for us to absorb fully under current national healthcare provisions."In order to ensure that couples are not limited by the cost factor in proceeding with fertility treatment, we will explore the possibility of recommending to the EPF to allow them to withdraw part of their savings from its 'B' Account."Rosnah added a National Population and Family Development Board survey indicated fertility rates in Malaysia hasdeclined from 3.4 in 1994 to 2.3 in 2008, andthe figures continued to deteriorate.Source: Bernama
Published March 25 2011
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