MESHIO.COM

Skim Insurans Kesihatan Kebangsaan (SIKK) which is a proposal to implement a mandatory health care policy for every citizen, is still under wraps and will not come cheap.

Thus the average expenditure per family will amount to RM2,808 per year (RM13.0 billion divided by 4.63 million families). In other words, each family will have to pay about RM235 per month.

Privatised health care which is now playing a very important role in the Malaysia health care system was introduced to off-load the burden and to improve the quality of service of goverment hospitals. Not only did not help improve the situation, the quality of service worsen and resulted in a more profit-oriented health care system.

Dr Xavier Jayakumar (Deputy Secretary General, Parti Keadilan Rakyat) on the state of Malaysia’s Health Care system:

“It’s so pathetic that even after 48 years of independence, Malaysia has yet to have a National Health Care Policy in the effort to shape the direction of the nation’s health care service.”

To make matter worse, the brain drain of hospital workforce in the public sector to the more lucrative private sector is also cited as the main culprit of deteriorating quality of health care provision in the public sector.

i) Firstly, income differences are enormous; a specialist in the public sector earns between RM4,000 and RM12,000 per month while those in the private sector earn between RM10,000 to RM100,000 per month. Some surgical specialists can even earn more than RM200,000 per month!

ii) Secondly, the workload in the public sector is heavier in most specialities.

iii) Thirdly, many medical and health professionals in the public sector feel that their contribution is not being recognised by pencil-pushing bureaucrats in the ministry and especially in the Public Services Department.

Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj (Coalition Against Healthcare Privatisation Secretary):

“We’ve been discussing this with health ministry officials for over a year now and it’s clear that the government is has yet to decide on the crucial aspects of the scheme .

Even the list of illnesses in the essential health package is not ready. When we asked if heart disease will be included, the ministry said it is waiting for the consultant (to determine this)”

Makes you wonder where did all the tax money go. Well, on a personal level, how many of us actually even allocate budgets for our own medical expenses? I am not talking about the occassional visits to the GP but those major “projects” which you need to change some internal “spare parts” or when your cells decided to have a game of PacMan.

Like how Dave Ramsey puts it, “The number-one cause of bankruptcy is Medical Bills, Number Two is Credit Cards.”