Materia Medica Malaysiana

National Health Insurance Scheme Gets Go-Ahead

PETALING JAYA, Dec 15 (Bernama) -- After two years of study, the government has agreed to implement the proposed National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) soon to reduce the healthcare burden on the government and help ease the long waiting time in public healthcare facilities.
Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said it would be based on a community-rated model.
"This means it would be based on cost and risk-sharing across the population, with the rich subsidising the poor, the young for the elderly, the healthy for the sick and the employed for the unemployed," he said when launching two medical insurance policies by Kurnia Insurans (M) Bhd -- "Mediguard" and "MediGuard Express" -- at Bandar Sunway, here Wednesday.
Chua said the community-rated model would encourage cost-sharing among stakeholders and consumers of healthcare while optimising the government's contribution and commitment and improving the quality of life of the people.
"The mechanism will be affordable, viable and sustainable, provide universal and comprehensive coverage and achieve greater equity and accessibility to quality health are for all Malaysians," he added.
Chua said the present system would be retained and be improved with greater integration between the public and private sectors while the mechanism would help to ensure better access to healthcare, either in the public or private sector.
"To govern and run the national health financing mechanism, there is also a need to set up a National Health Financing Authority under the Ministry of Health and to be wholly owned by the government," he said.
The National Health Financing Authority would function as a single payer for the healthcare of all citizens and eligible non-citizens.
Speaking to reporters later, Chua said the proposed NHIS was given the go-ahead by the government after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was briefed on the proposed model six weeks ago.
"However, the Prime Minister instructed that some adjustments be made (to the proposal)," he said.
He said the ministry has appointed a consultant to study the amount that needed to be paid for the NHIS.
The consultant would submit a report within six months, he added.
Dr Chua said NHIS was needed as the government could not continue to cover the rising cost of health expenditure.
For example, he said, the ministry's budget had increased from RM1 billion or 3.6 per cent of the national budget in 1983 to RM7.6 billion or 7.1 per cent of the national budget in 2003, while total collections from hospital and clinic charges only equalled 2.2 per cent of the ministry's operating budget in 2003.