PeKa B40 expanded it coverage, but its number of registered recipients remains low

According to pekab40.com.my, the Health Care Scheme for B40 (PeKa B40) is a government initiative through the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) aimed at meeting the health needs of the low-income group, with a focus on non-communicable diseases (NCD).

The government has been providing health aid for the B40 group, covering BSH recipients and their spouses aged 50 to 60.

During tabling of the 2019 Budget in October, PeKa B40 expanded its coverage by providing health aid to BSH recipients aged 40 and above.

However, PeKa B40 has limited press coverage in the mainstream media. Most of the time, it was mentioned on the surface alongside Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH), MySalam, and Foodbank, as an initiative provided by the government to the less privileged.

For the past one-month, Minister of Health Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad was the most active influencer to address PeKa B40, followed by his deputy Dr Lee Boon Chye. They made 44 statements and 32 statements respectively on the health aid.

The Health Minister announced that over 130,000 individuals have gone through health screening through PeKa B40 for the past year. He expected that more people will benefit from the health scheme as its minimum age limit had been reduced from 50 to 40 years.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Health Minister revealed that PeKa B40 initially targeted 800,000 recipients, but it only managed to attract 130,000 people to register. Therefore, the Health Ministry reduced its target to between 250,000 to 300,000 registered recipients by the end of the year.

According to media intelligence, the media exposure of PeKa B40 was generally low. This could be the primary reason for the low number of registration as the public are unaware of the health scheme provided by the government for the B40 group.