I may have found the right medical insurance for me, but the quote form is asking for the name of my local family physician. I've not yet registered with any doctor in KL and I wonder how to go about it? Any recommendations? I live on the south west side of the city between KL and PJ. I have no immediate health concerns.

Note: I am just on the 90 day pass, no proper visa.

I would think that they are asking for your local physician/doctor in the country that you are coming from. In case, they may wish to check with them any existing conditions. (Actually, I suspect they rarely do check.)

Registering with a GP....it doesn't really work like that in Malaysia.

You keep track of your own medical conditions. You are in control.

If you have a minor problem, say a sore throat or something, you can either:

1. Go along to a pharmacy and tell them what the problem is. The pharmacists are usually quite knowledgeable.

or

2. Go along to any polyklinik. Take your passport with you. You can fill in a card to register there. Then you will maybe wait a few minutes before you see the doctor. You are NOT limited then to that one polyklinik. You can go to as many as you like.

If you have something more serious, or you believe it to be more serious, get along to the hospital of your choice. Talk to the reception desk. You will need to register. Then you can make appointment with a specialist doctor/surgeon e.g. ENT, Oncology, Neurology, etc etc.

Thanks, I'll clarify with them what they need. It's a US based firm so I think it may be difficult for them to understand the Malaysian system!

I can see the problem here, they will want to be able to verify if you have correctly declared pre-existing conditions. Although BB is right that they seldom check that is probably because there is seldom a claim, I am sure they will nearly always check after a claim especially for a condition which normally has some antecedence. The Malaysian system is not helpful in this context since as BB again says the individual controls his own medical files.

Furthermore, if ever you went into a hospital with, say, a heart problem and they asked you if you had previously suffered high blood pressure you would probably tell them you did without considering whether you had told the insurance company. This would also come out if ever there was a claim.

Remember insurance companies love collecting premiums and hate paying claims.

As you are in KL, I thought I'd share a decent doctor's practice for you, in case you need it (they're in Mont Kiara, so not too far if you're SW/PJ way). They do medical/dental amongst their services:

Global Doctors
18, Jalan Kiara 3, Mont Kiara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 6203 0999