PETALING JAYA: Budget cuts on health spending are akin to leaving patients with diabetes and heart disease to die, said prominent blogger A Kadir Jasin, a former media adviser to Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He said the allocations in the 2021 federal budget made it seem as if the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government wanted to save the public from Covid-19 at the expense of those with diabetes, heart disease and other non-communicable diseases.
“The people who suffer from these diseases are already very vulnerable to Covid-19, (so) reducing allocation for their treatment or making it harder for them to access this treatment is the same as handing them over to be killed by Covid-19,” he said in a Facebook post today.
The 2021 budget allocates RM17 billion for the Covid-19 fund but critics said there were severe cuts for various health care services, and the budget estimates show a 77% decrease for spending on nephrology, a 74% decrease for pharmacy and supplies, and a 58% decrease for radiotherapy and oncology.
Kadir said the health ministry’s allocation charts showed “nonsense and tricks” by the PN government and he reminded MPs of their responsibility to check, and make any amendments to conflicting or inaccurate provisions and projections in the budget before approving them.
Kadir also said the budget was too optimistic in terms of its projection for tax revenue. - FMT
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