Materia Medica Malaysiana

MMA Seeks To Discuss Health Scheme Issues With Government

KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) will discuss with the government the issues and concerns of the public and medical practitioners regarding the proposed National Health Financing Scheme.
Its president Datuk Dr N. Arumugam said patients and doctors felt they were being "kept in the dark" about the scheme.
He said many people were worried because free healthcare would be withdrawn.
"It is going to change a culture of 50 years -- from total free care to partial payment. The people need a lot of information (about the new scheme)," he told reporters after a meeting of the MMA Private Practitioners Section Sunday.
The new scheme, expected to be introduced next year, would remove free healthcare benefits for most people, except the poor, government servants, handicapped citizens and the underprivileged who would continue to be subsidised by the government.
The scheme will be based on a "community-rated" financing mechanism under which the cost and risk-sharing will be spread across the population, with the rich subsidising the poor, the young the elderly, the healthy the sick and the employed the unemployed.
According to Health Ministry reports last month, the scheme was in the final stages of preparation and consultants were working out a mechanism on the quanta hospitals should charge patients.
Dr Arumugam said people needed time to understand how the scheme worked and would accept it if it benefited them.