Malaysia
Malaysian Healthcare Funding :
System reform needed to prepare for an ageing society
The country has to increase healthcare funding to ensure good quality care for everyone
You can have even 10 doctors to every 400 citizens , but healthcare access is limited because the doctors are all in urban areas
With the Malaysian government expected to finalise its Health White Paper by midyear , public discourse on future healthcare funding and its significance in transforming the healthcare system will be critical .
Malaysia ’ s healthcare sector is currently divided into public and private components . Public healthcare is funded primarily by government revenue from the Ministry of Health ( MOH ) and national and state agencies . Private healthcare is funded by the Employees Provident Fund ( EPF ), Social Security Organisation ( SOCSO ), private health insurers , and medical fees paid by patients . Yet the sector is perpetually underfunded , resulting in problems ranging from an unsustainable healthcare system due to a lack of resources to limited medical staff overworked as a result of high numbers of patient admissions .
Overwhelming patient turnout , underwhelming healthcare roster Recent reports of patient overcrowding at outpatient clinics and complaints of long waiting times due to the lack of doctors stem from various factors that have accumulated over several years , even before the COVID-19 pandemic . Dr Khor Swee Kheng , who
Malaysia healthcare is underfunded headed the Malaysian Health Coalition , an apolitical organisation of health professionals , remarked that the recent surge of patients to outpatient clinics is due to the backlog of appointments caused by the movement control order ( MCO ) imposed during the pandemic .
With COVID numbers dropping , the high vaccination rate among the populace , and travel restrictions lifted , patients believe that it is safe once again to come to the hospital , he said .
But he also attributes the overworking of hospital staff to ongoing fundamental structural challenges in the healthcare system . Underfunding , unclear policies on procurement capital and healthcare delivery planning , specifically disparity between the number of public hospitals , private hospitals , and primary care clinics are structural issues that contribute to the current healthcare problem , he explained .
In 2020 , Malaysia ’ s doctor-population ratio was 1:454 , slightly below the World Health Organization ’ s ( WHO ) recommendation of one doctor to 500 patients . The country is also experiencing an overproduction of medical graduates in the market but insufficient workforce in the healthcare sector due to a lack of permanent posts , specifically in emergency departments . Dr Khor , however , stressed that the total numbers of healthcare professionals are helpful performance metrics but they can also be misleading because “ you can have even 10 doctors to every 400 citizens , but healthcare access is limited because the doctors are all in urban areas ( none in rural areas ), all in lucrative specialities ( none in primary care or public health ), all in hospitals ( none in clinics ) or all in private healthcare ( none in public healthcare ).”
Increased taxation and prudent spending needed to sustain healthcare Another WHO benchmark is that countries should spend around 5-6 percent of their gross domestic product ( GDP ) on healthcare . Currently , Malaysia is at nearly 2.6 percent of its GDP , prompting queries about how it can reach this WHO benchmark . The Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy in Kuala Lumpur suggested that the Malaysian government
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