Health Care in Malaysia

On Saturday, we celebrated Ella's sixth birthday.  The movie 'Up' was recently released to the big screen in Malaysia, so she was allowed to invite a friend to join us. Then we were going to go back to our condo to have dinner with some friends and the kids that were too young to sit through 'Up'.  But our plans didn't work out as we had intended. Towards the end of the movie, Ella came down with a really bad migraine.  She vomited in the car on the short drive back to our condo and then fell asleep after some pretty intense drama.  We were a bit worried and we started preparing to get her some medical care.  But, before we had a chance to finish discussing what to do, she fell asleep.

While she napped, her friends played and the adults enjoyed some conversation. She woke up a couple of hours later and she was well enough to celebrate with some cake.  (By that time, however, her friends left, so only the adults were left to sing - but she was pleased.)

This incident poses a question: what would we have done?  

In Malaysia there are both public and private hospitals/clinics.  Expats are not allowed to use government (public) hospitals (except in the event of an emergency) and they are not an attractive option anyway.  They are heavily used and most doctors tend to go to private clinics after they have served their minimum term in the state hospitals (thus, private hospitals have doctors with more experience).  Malaysians who can afford it, often choose to pay for the convenience of private healthcare.  Doctors have often been trained overseas and are very knowledgeable.  With our limited experience, we have found the private healthcare to be very inexpensive (compared to the U.S.).  The hospitals are new and have the latest and greatest equipment.  A night in a hospital suite will be about $150 U.S. dollars or only about $30 if you want to share a room with four other patients.  Additional doctors' fees are quite reasonable.  A friend whose daughter needed to spend the night in the hospital after a fall from her crib had a total bill of about $250 U.S. dollars - that included visits with a specialist!  (We don't have carpet here because of the high humidity, so a fall from a crib can be dangerous.)

There is a hospital just down the road from us that we are quite comfortable to use if necessary.  That is where we would have taken Ella.  It is a new facility that is quite impressive.

http://www.tropicanamedicalcentre.com/

To our American friends and family - come visit us and get your medical procedures done too!