1 Care to be made mandatory, says Health Ministry
The Malaysian Insider: The Health Ministry said today that the 1 Care national healthcare proposal will be made mandatory for all Malaysians, in an admission that is likely to fuel further controversy.
Despite insisting in the past week that the proposal was still at an early stage, Health Ministry deputy director for the National Health Financing unit Dr Rozita Halina Hussein said today that 1 Care would have to be made mandatory.
However, she said private healthcare providers would be given a choice on whether to participate in the new healthcare system that has seen stiff opposition from stakeholder groups.
She also denied rumours that the ministry had finalised a decision to force Malaysians to contribute 10 per cent of their salaries to finance the scheme.
There were also no plans to cap the number of medical consultations, she said.
Opinion Editorial: Malaysian health reform socio-economics — David KL Quek
The Malaysian Insider: Is the Malaysian health system really in trouble that it requires such a drastic revolutionary change? Is 1 Care for 1 Malaysia Health Reform the answer? Will this proposed radical change make our health system more efficient and effective as touted by officials?
Or, is this proposed reform too ambitious and sweeping that it could possibly lead to severe disruptions to our current health system that we are so used to?
More importantly, would this health reform plan become another government-linked corporate entity which, instead of benefiting the public, only enriches a few favoured cronies or insiders?
1 Care in its ‘final stages’, say Health Ministry officials
The Malaysian Insider: Putrajaya’s controversial 1 Care scheme, which critics claim will tax citizens and businesses monthly to foot the country’s growing healthcare bill, has already entered its “final stages”, Health Ministry officials told a pharmaceutical seminar last month.
This is despite the ministry’s repeated denials and assurance to the public that it is “too early” to sound warning bells about the scheme, believed to be in phase three of a five-phase implementation plan.
The Malaysian Insider understands that ministry officials had told the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS) during a seminar on January 15 that it was already finalising 1 Care proposals and that a Pharmacy Act would be tabled at the next Parliament sitting in March to facilitate the transition to the new insurance scheme.
“The 1 Care transformation proposals are now in the final stages,” the ministry’s health policy and planning deputy director Dr Nordin Saleh had told MPS, according to the