KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 3 -- Are you looking for an affordable medical insurance policy in Malaysia, especially for costly treatment of serious illnesses at private hospitals?

Soon, you will be able to buy basic medical insurance, known as base medical and health insurance/takaful (MHIT), which insurance companies must start offering as an alternative next year.

Here are the nine things you need to know based on the government's recently-released White Paper on the Base MHIT Plan:

1. What is the base MHIT plan?

It was developed with the support of regulator Bank Negara Malaysia, the Finance Ministry and Health Ministry:

This is not an insurance plan subsidised or operated by the government.

Instead, you can buy this from private insuranc...