KUALA LUMPUR, August 4 — Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) plans to launch a campaign against the Rakan KKM scheme in a bid to safeguard the public health care system.
In a message sent on WhatsApp yesterday, as sighted by CodeBlue, PSM chairman Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj said the government should allocate at least 5 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for public health care, in line with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendation for upper middle-income economies.
He noted that the allocation for the Ministry of Health (MOH) currently comprises only about 2.3 per cent of GDP.
“However, instead of initiating more effective measures to augment government revenue so that the allocation to health care can be increased, the Madani government has decided to implement programmes that will aggravate the situation,” said Dr Jeyakumar.
“The Rakan KKM initiative and the MOH’s Insurance Scheme will create a privileged category of patients who get to enjoy easier access to government specialists and much shorter waiting times because they can pay the additional charges.
“Malaysians who cannot afford these extra charges will be further marginalised in the public health care system.
“This is not acceptable to the PSM and, we believe, all fair-minded Malaysians.”
Rakan KKM – set to be launched in four government hospitals – plans to provide paying patients faster access to elective procedures. The government also plans to create a voluntary private health insurance product that can be paid for from one’s Account 2 of their Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) retirement savings.
Both Rakan KKM and the government’s new medical and health insurance/takaful (MHIT) product are part of the Reset strategy by Bank Negara Malaysia, the Ministry of Finance (MOF), and the MOH to curb rising private health care costs.
“Malaysia once had a public health care system that was the envy of many developing countries,” said Dr Jeyakumar.
He noted that, however, years of underfunding and “wrong” policies like allowing for-profit private hospitals and the promotion of health tourism have led to overcrowding of public hospitals and long waiting times for critical investigations and treatment.
About 75 per cent of specialists with more than five years’ experience are in the private sector.
“Ordinary people are forced to seek treatment in the private sector as the waiting time in the public hospitals is too long,” said Dr Jeyakumar.
“An increasing number of people are forced to take health insurance as a precautionary measure. The costs of private health care and health insurance premiums are increasing markedly every year.”
PSM’s campaign, which will be officially launched on August 13 at the KL-Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, has four main demands: increase MOH’s allocation to 5 per cent of GDP over the next five years, a moratorium on the construction of new private hospitals, cancellation of the Rakan KKM scheme, and price caps for private hospital charges.
The 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) tabled in Parliament last Thursday omits the objective of raising public health care spending to 5 per cent of GDP, proposing instead Rakan KKM, a new MHIT product, a new national health fund and a strategic purchasing platform, as well as pro-health taxes on tobacco, vape, and alcohol.
