Think tank: Monitor health expenditure, don’t just increase funds

IDEAS welcomes increased allocation for public health, but says it is important to set up a good monitoring system to ensure the money is well spent.

IDEAS says money alone will not improve healthcare if expenditure is not monitored. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) today urged the health ministry to ensure better monitoring and evaluation of allocations for public health.

Wan Ya Shin, a social policy analyst at IDEAS, said this would result in better value from the increased allocation planned by the government.

Although applauding the boost in allocation for health, and initiatives for increasing health coverage, Wan said IDEAS was concerned that this would not automatically translate into better healthcare.

“The increase in allocation for healthcare would be necessary to advance the healthcare system. However, the implementation needs to be well designed to ensure that it will not only result in an increase in facilities, but also an improvement in the quality of healthcare.

“Therefore, a monitoring and evaluation system will be necessary to ensure efficiency and effectiveness, and to prevent wastage of allocation,” he said in a statement.

He was responding to Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, who recently said the ministry would increase spending on healthcare.

Dzulkefly had wanted to achieve an expenditure of 6% to 7% of the gross domestic product, half of which will be from public allocations.

On the Skim Peduli Sihat for B40 households, Wan said the health voucher scheme would broaden health coverage by targeting the lower income groups.

“It will provide the lower income groups with more choices and reduce the burden on public healthcare. This initiative will leverage on the private sector to enhance the coverage of primary healthcare.”

He also urged the ministry to leverage on the participation of the private sector in its initiatives, applauding the attention given to rare diseases which command little attention due to the low prevalence. -FMT