Madani should not reduce healthcare budget to save money

 

“The cost of this cut will be paid in delayed procedures, longer waiting lists, medicine shortages, deteriorating facilities, exhausted healthcare workers, avoidable complications, and preventable deaths.”

- Galen Centre chief executive Azrul Khalib

The proposed reduction of the healthcare budget by Madani because of the so-called austerity drive due to the conflict in West Asia perpetrated by Tel Aviv and Washington is the kind of news item that gets lost in the mendacious games of our political elites.

I have no idea which genius in Putrajaya thought it was a good idea in these times to mess with the healthcare budget.

In a time when some folks are cancelling their insurance because of sky high premiums thereby relying on public healthcare, private hospitals are under the microscope for excessive billings, the pricing of drugs means that patients, even those who are eligible for expensive life saving treatments because their close family members are government servants, are disenfranchised and the rakyat is feeling the pinch when it comes to the cost of transport and groceries, this government decides that healthcare should be trimmed to save money.

Billions down the drain, but healthcare neglected

I am one of those people who believe that healthcare is a human right. I believe that this is one of the areas where our tax ringgit could be put to the best use, together with education. But what are the priorities of our successive governments?

We have billions of ringgit poured into the religious bureaucracy over decades, the sole function of which is to hamper reforms in favour of regressive ideas that have divided the people of this country.

This also includes public health policies, not to mention health policies for marginalised groups.

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Think about this: every time the government, through one of its instruments, responds to every perceived slight, provocation, and engages in the persecution of individuals deemed detrimental to the well-being of the state, this costs money.

When the government enables programmes and individuals who stir resentment amongst the various ethnic communities in this country, this costs money.

Think about the money lost in leakages because of crony capitalism, on double or triple pensions of the political class, and inflated government projects. Think about the money lost when the government decides that it needs to spend tax ringgit to aid foreign victims of wars when the rakyat are grappling with vagaries brought upon by international geopolitics.

Galen Centre chief executive Azrul Khalib said, “The Health Ministry should not be treated as a convenient place to find savings. Health is a core public investment. It protects lives, productivity, economic stability, and social trust,” and this is the alpha and omega of this issue.

Every time you visit a public healthcare facility and notice the dilapidated condition of the buildings, keep in mind that successive governments did have the funds to maintain these structures, but instead diverted those funds to other projects deemed more important.

This is about priorities, and successive governments have demonstrated that they do not view healthcare in the same way they view other programmes that they believe will keep them in power.

The least well-off suffer

CodeBlue has done some remarkable coverage on this issue. If you think urban folks have it bad, think again.

Class determines the level of healthcare available, and again, the majority are “penalised” because more often than not, especially in rural areas, they are short-changed by the federal and local government, which have no problems sustaining projects which offer no tangible benefits but have no interest in providing quality healthcare.

In such circumstances, it is left to the ordinary rakyat to fend for themselves. Online, there are an inexhaustible number of stories of how healthcare workers from top to bottom are helping government hospitals or clinics with money from their salaries, which is not very much to begin with.

Rational people should question the need for government employees to use their own salaries to supplement the needs of a government facility, which is there to support the rakyat.

Instead, we have political shysters attempting to divide the rakyat on issues like a water festival, for instance.

This is the problem with Malaysia’s healthcare sector. We have the expertise and commitment to handle almost any situation. We also have competent people, but they have always been sidelined.

We also have the laws and tools necessary to deal with healthcare issues, but they have never been applied consistently and rationally.

Only someone ignorant of the realities in Malaysia would claim otherwise.

Different tune when in power

And you would think that Pakatan Harapan, which has at one time or another in their years as the opposition, would have a strategy when it comes to this country’s healthcare system.

But as always, once in power, they forget about the average Joe  Rakyat who relies on this system.

In 2023, Ipoh Timor MP Howard Lee, who, to be fair, is one of the more interesting candidates the DAP has to offer, fumbled with the issue of healthcare in an interview with CodeBlue, which is worth revisiting because it shows you how political operatives use this issue when they are not in power and how their tone and agenda change when they come into power.

Lee was arrogant when he said that he would not entertain “emotive questions”, but the reality is that healthcare for the majority of Malaysians is an emotive issue, whether you rely on public healthcare or are workers in the public healthcare system.

Life, death, or quality of life are emotional issues, so is public healthcare, and the funding of it should be sacrosanct.

There is a reason why the political elites and the enabled class play football with this issue. 

Unlike the rest of us, who rely on public healthcare, they have money to spend on private healthcare or are accorded VIP or privileged status when they use public healthcare.

It says something about our society when the healthcare budget is trimmed while the gross enabling of institutions which provide very little benefit to the average rakyat endure.

The issue of healthcare could be a real vote getter for Madani as it is in many countries, and more’s the pity that Madani does not understand this. - Mkini

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S THAYAPARAN is commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.