To be meaningful, a national budget should not focus just on economic development but also on the critical areas that affect society, especially children. These include Education, Health, Protection, Environment and the Social Determinants that marginalise and exclude children.
For Budget 2023, DAP calls for increased manpower in the public health care system, addressing contract health care workers’ issues, investment in rural clinics and mental health services, and mySalam expansion; PKR wants full rollout of HPV vaccination.
Khairy Jamaluddin says Cabinet must decide on whether to reduce “regressive” fuel subsidies to invest in public health care instead, admitting it’s very hard to double MOH’s annual budget to RM70 billion.