KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — Kuala Langat MP Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi has declared his opposition to Rakan KKM for favouring the wealthy minority over the lower-income majority.
The Perikatan Nasional (PN) lawmaker reiterated concerns from the public, non-governmental organisations, and medical groups about the long-term implications of the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) new private health care service.
“Among the most concerning situations is that Rakan KKM will indirectly create a two-tiered public health care system,” Dr Ahmad Yunus said in a statement Saturday.
“In Malaysia, we already have a dual public-private health care system with vastly different medical costs that have an impact on health insurance and takaful, doctors leaving the public for the private sector, and various other issues that are difficult to solve.”
He cited Rakan KKM’s official website that says Rakan KKM will offer a “premium economy” service in select government hospitals for elective outpatient, daycare, and inpatient services, including personalised care, specialist choice, and enhanced privacy.
Rakan KKM is expected to be launched in the third quarter of this year in Cyberjaya Hospital, Putrajaya Hospital, Sultan Idris Shah Serdang Hospital, and the National Cancer Institute.
Dr Ahmad Yunus said providing paying patients faster and more comfortable treatment under Rakan KKM, while waiting times lengthen for patients who cannot afford to pay, ran contrary to the fundamental principle of public health care that should prioritise people based on need, not financial ability.
“This isn’t very different from other private hospitals that run for-profit businesses.”
Dr Ahmad Yunus also said it was unrealistic to expect Rakan KKM to retain health care workers, noting that many specialist doctors leave public service because they are underpaid and overworked.
“The extra allowance from Rakan KKM is seen as not being competitive with the private sector that offers far higher pay, besides adding onto a rather full work schedule to treat a huge patient load,” said the PAS MP.
“Some specialist doctors in the public sector expect that they will not have enough time to work in Rakan KKM because they’re already overloaded with existing duties.”
Dr Ahmad Yunus countered Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad’s denials about Rakan KKM, which will be operated by Rakan KKM Sdn Bhd, privatising the public health care system.
“Even though Rakan KKM is fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc.), after this, a portion of public facilities and manpower will provide services only to a certain group of people. Isn’t this open privatisation?”
He suggested that the MOH focus first on setting up a national diagnosis-related groups (DRG) payment system to help curb private health care charges. DRG, he said, could also be used as the foundation for a national health insurance or financing scheme.
CodeBlue reported recently that Rakan KKM aims to maximise profit by using public resources like medical supplies and assets from the MOH at cost and charging paying patients 100 per cent markups on supplies and services, including consumables.
Rakan KKM’s plans to generate high profit margins with steep markups on individual components of a hospital bill indicates that the government is unlikely to adopt a DRG system, since a bundled payment mechanism for a single episode of care will likely reduce profit.
