Exploring health reforms

MMA: Talk to stakeholders 

Monday, The Star, April 18, 2011

By LOH FOON FONG
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) wants the Government to hold dialogues with various stakeholders on its plan to form the national health financing scheme.

Its president Dr David Quek said the Government's 1Care health reform currently being carried out for the purpose of setting up the financing scheme “was going too fast and lacked information”.
“If we want change or reform, we must do it with a lot of consultation with stakeholders. They need to buy into the idea,” he said.

Dr Quek also questioned if there would be a future for private practice and personal choice medical care when the health financing scheme was introduced.
Addressing the Healthcare Reform: Issues and Economics of Integration and Reimbursement Mechanisms forum in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, Dr Quek said the Government should explore various forms of healthcare change besides the national health financing scheme.
For a start, the Government should increase funding for healthcare and set up funds for catastrophic illnesses such as cancer so that people would not end up with medical bankruptcy, he said.

Dr Quek said that out-of-pocket payment in Malaysia amounted to 41% of all healthcare payment and there was a need to reduce the percentage by half because if it were to go beyond 50%, the risk of medical bankruptcy would increase.

United Nations University-International Institute of Global Health professor of health economics and consultant Datuk Dr Syed Mohamed Aljunid urged the Government to implement a case-mix system, which was a reimbursement mechanism that would help it spend funds effectively while increasing the quality of healthcare.

In any healthcare reform, questions such as revenue collection, how resources are pooled, purchasing rules and implementation needed to be resolved, he said.