The Health Ministry warned that if the country's healthcare delivery system is not restructured, it risks going down the same path as the United States, which has arguably the highest healthcare cost in the world.
Emphasising the need for a national healthcare insurance scheme, the ministry’s unit for national health financing deputy director Dr Rozita Halina Hussein ( left ), said that Malaysians are spending a lot on private healthcare rather than utilising the public system which has been functioning since independence.
“People are already paying their own money for private health insurance. (What we are proposing is) moving towards a prepaid pool system because it is clear you cannot pay for healthcare on your own.
“The poor, elderly and young need healthcare the most. The focus would be to channel public funds in helping these groups. Those who can afford it should pay for their families.
“As you grow old you cannot afford it - even with retirement funds, pension or your savings to cover healthcare... in the US, they always have a savings account system but it is a failure because people cannot save enough... there has to be a big enough pool,” said Rozita.
In advocating the rationale behind ‘1Care for 1Malaysia’ at a media briefing yesterday, Rozita stated that private healthcare insurance was growing about 7 percent per annum.
“If we don’t manage it properly we are heading towards the US system... that is why we have to look at better ways of improving healthcare... instead of worrying about whether it is (consuming) 15 percent or 17 percent of the GDP with 30 to 40 million people not covered.
“This has resulted in millions in the country being uninsured and bankrupt,” she said.
Rozita pointed out that the current two-tier system has resulted in fragmentation of the sectors as little is conveyed between the public and private healthcare providers.
Gov't clinics and hospitals overwhelmed
Citing ministry statistics from 2008, she said that 7.9 percent of government clinics are managing 41.6 percent of outpatients in the country, while 92 percent of private clinics cater to about 60 percent.
“The workload is far more in the public sector. Doctors care for 44.7 million patients with only 555 clinics, 145 hospitals, 41,483 hospital beds and yet, they have to take care of 226,257 admissions yearly,” said Rozita.
Yesterday, the ministry shot back at critics against the 1Care proposal saying that they had the facts “twisted” and “misinterpreted”.
The deputy director-general of health, Dr Maimunah A Hamid (left) , who was also at the briefing asserted that the ministry has been working on the design since 2010, and hopes to submit for government approval and implementation mid-next year.
“In the principle component, it has to be managed not for profit, definitely we don’t want it to be a privatised entity... we want to be sure the operating cost is as minimum as possible... in some countries, for example, Taiwan, the administrative cost of their national health insurance is borne by the government,” she said.
The 1Care proposal has met strong resistance after the Citizens’ Healthcare Coalition (CHC) raised the alarm that the government was planning to implement the system where Malaysians would be forced to contribute 10 percent of their household income to finance the scheme while their annual visits to the doctor is capped at six.
The CHC has insisted that the figures and facts made public, were part of leaked documents from the consultation groups, and that the plan was in its final stages of completion.
Last week, the director-general of health, Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman, assured critics that the 1Care scheme will not burden the public with undue costs, adding that discussions on the financial arrangements and its impact on the government and taxpayers were ongoing.
Rozita, however, said that despite being in its infancy it will be made mandatory for the people to contribute to the insurance-like funding system, although the breakdown of cost has yet to be finalised.
“When I retire in three years, I’m covered and I want the best... I know most of us here are happy with the (existing) services but we haven’t optimised it yet and I think there is opportunity for us to optimise it, and we need your input,” said Hasan, who was also present at yesterday's briefing.
He also rebutted claims that 1Care only provided basic healthcare, stressing that “basic” would essentially encompass “everything needed to survive”.
“Heart surgery, renal failure and liver transplant is still considered basic when it is necessary for your survival,” said Hasan.
“The worry that it will cover only basic healthcare is not justified, because it isn’t just about coughs and colds but everything, except plastic surgery for cosmetic purposes,” he said, adding that 1 Care technical group is currently working on designing a scheme apt for all Malaysians.
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