On May 1, 2025, a wave of frustration swept through Malaysia’s private health care community. With little warning and even less engagement, the Ministry of Health (MOH), alongside the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN), enforced a policy mandating all private clinics and community pharmacies to display medicine prices, across all brands, dosages, and forms.
Billed as a gesture of “transparency” and “consumer empowerment,” the directive was heralded by the MOH as a progressive step forward.
But for the thousands of general practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists who form the backbone of Malaysia’s outpatient care system, this was no reform. It was a bureaucratic ambush, one that exposed not just incompetence but the deep hypocrisy and elitism entrenched in the country’s health governance.
A Policy Imposed, Not Discussed
From the outset, this regulation reeked of top-down arrogance. There were no town halls. No engagement sessions. No feedback loops. Key stakeholders, including MMA, FPMPAM, PERDIM and other major medical associations, were left out in the cold.
The very professionals expected to enforce the policy were not even granted the courtesy of consultation.
The irony is staggering: a Ministry that preaches “stakeholder engagement” couldn’t spare a single sit-down with the very people tasked with delivering its so-called reform. This wasn’t policymaking, it was rule by circular, enforced by ambush.
Regulatory Punishment Disguised As Transparency
The MOH wants clinics and pharmacies to display detailed, constantly updated price lists for hundreds of medicines, including prescription-only items, over-the-counter supplements, and traditional products. This must be done visibly, legibly, and accurately, or risk being fined under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011 (Act 723).
This is not transparency. This is regulatory punishment.
Small, independent clinics with limited staff and razor-thin margins are now expected to act like Major Corporates, complete with laminated menus and real-time price syncing. There is no support, no funding, no guidance, just plain demands.
What’s next? Asking GPs to shout out discounts over loudspeakers like pasar malam traders?
The Grand Irony: No Transparency In The MOH Itself
While clinics are being arm-twisted into revealing their pricing, the MOH continues to operate behind a thick veil of secrecy. There is:
- No public accounting for hospital project tenders.
- No disclosure of GLC procurement markups.
- No audit of MOH-linked concessionaires like Pharmaniaga, FOMEMA etc.
- No price breakdowns for government-purchased drugs or medical devices.
Where is the transparency in billion-ringgit hospital maintenance contracts? Where is the clarity on ventilator acquisitions, vaccine stockpiles, and cleaning services? A dead silence.
And while GPs are hounded over a few extra ringgit, the MOH throws itself lavish Hari Raya parties, all paid for with public funds.
Austerity, it seems, is only for Private Practitioners and Pharmacies.
Solving Inflation By Attacking The Wrong People
If this price transparency policy was meant to curb rising health care costs, it missed the mark by miles. Malaysian medical inflation is among the highest in the ASEAN region. Why?
- Unregulated markups by wholesalers.
- Monopolies held by politically linked suppliers.
- Disproportionate margins enjoyed by third-party administrators (TPAs).
The Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy has warned that this move may backfire. By publicly fixing prices at retail levels, the policy will likely lead to price standardisation upwards, not savings. Providers will buffer themselves against accusations of profiteering by raising all prices uniformly.
Meanwhile, no action is taken against to date unregulated TPAs and corporate entities squeezing GPs with delayed payments (up to six months and more), arbitrary deductions, and unfair one-sided terms.
33 Years Of No Fee Revisions For GPs, State-Sanctioned Exploitation
Let us not forget that GP consultation fees in Malaysia have not been revised since 1992. Thirty-three years. In that time, we’ve seen the introduction of GST (goods and services tax), SST (sales and service tax), multiple minimum wage increases, inflation in utilities, and rental hikes. But doctors’ consultation fees remain frozen in time.
But instead of addressing this glaring injustice, the MOH adds yet another burden. Clinics must now print, display, explain, and defend every medicine price, while still charging 1992 rates for a consultation.
This is not just negligent governance; it is state-sanctioned exploitation.
Conclusion: Reform Must Begin With The Ministry, Not Frontliners
Let us be clear: real transparency is welcome. Real reform is needed. But reform must begin at the top.
The MOH should start by opening its own books:
- Publish tender documents.
- Disclose pricing on hospital contracts.
- Audit GLC (government-linked company) drug suppliers.
- Regulate TPAs.
- Review and revise outdated consultation fees.
Until then, its cries for “price transparency” ring hollow. This isn’t transparency. It’s bureaucracy wrapped in hypocrisy, served with political theatre.
The public deserves better. The country’s frontliners – the doctors and pharmacists who held the system together during a global pandemic – don’t deserve punishment, but respect.
Malaysia needs an MOH that listens, leads, and lives by example, not one that scapegoats its professionals while shielding its own excesses.
Dr James Jeremiah is the past president and founding president of the Association of Private Practitioners Sabah (APPS).
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
