‘Still no sign of health insurance scheme after all that talk’

 

Cancer society managing director Murallitharan Munisamy said the public healthcare system could not carry on charging only RM1 for all patients.

PETALING JAYA: A medical doctor expressed his disappointment at the lack of emphasis in the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) on improvements to the healthcare system despite the country facing a pandemic.

Murallitharan Munisamy

National Cancer Society managing director Dr Murallitharan Munisamy said more attention should have been given to the public health sector.

He questioned why the 12MP did not come up with plans for creating a national health insurance system, although the matter had been discussed many times.

Criticisms were also laid out for the failure to increase spending for treatment of non-communicable diseases, and “no mention of the problem of the brain drain of our medical talent, and the problems facing contract doctors”

However, Murallitharan praised the proposals to charge higher fees for high-income earners who seek treatment at public hospitals. “Charging RM1 for all patients (at health clinics) regardless of their income background is not financially sustainable for the public health service,” he said.

Murallitharan’s comments, at a forum by an all-party parliamentary group, comes in the wake of a health think-tank’s criticism of the 12MP for making inadequate provision for health frontliners. - FMT