'Not for profit', single-payer scheme proposed

In his response to the Coalition on 30 March 2005 (see preceding post), Health Ministry Director General Ismail Merican attached four pages outlining (in Malay) the proposed health care financing mechanism. (Please click on the four images below to enlarge the respective pages.)

Among the main points in the outline:

The objective of the mechanism is to improve accessibility and provide equitable, comprehensive, high quality and efficient health care services for the people.

This is to be achieved by sharing costs among the various "stakeholders" and optimising the government's contribution.

The mechanism aims to integrate the public and private sectors to enable both to achieve parity in quality and efficiency of health care.

There will be two main sources of financing:

1) compulsory "community-rated" contributions for National Health Insurance by individuals who can afford it.

2) government allocations for civil servants, the poor, senior citizens, the disabled, etc.

No one will be denied access to quality health care because they can't afford it.

Private health insurance will be complementary and not in competition with the national health financing mechanism.

The proposed scheme will be better than what we have now.

It is proposed that the National Health Financing Authority will be a statutory body under the control of the Health Ministry. It will function as a 'not for profit' body and will not be privatised. This Authority will manage the National Health Fund under a "single-payer" scheme.

The implementation of this scheme will be carried out in stages.

The Health Ministry welcomes feedback and input into the planning and implementation of the mechanism.

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Financing authority won't be privatised, says Health Ministry

The Health Ministry's Director General, Ismail Merican, responded on 30 March 2005 to the Coalition's letter dated 8 March 2005, which had expressed concern about the proposed national health insurance scheme.

Among the salient points in Ismail's letter (reproduced below):

The Economic Planning Unit in the Prime Minister's department and the Health Ministry are studying the implementation of a health care financing mechanism.

They are setting up a National Health Care Financing Authority. It is proposed that this Authority will come under the Health Ministry and won't be privatised.

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Coalition worried about health insurance scheme

The following is a letter sent to the Health Minister expressing concern over the proposed national health insurance scheme and asking for a dialogue:


Gabungan Membantah Pengswastaan Di Bidang Kesihatan
d/a 2A Jln Sitiawan
Lim Gardens
30100 Ipoh, Perak DR.

8 Mac 2005

Kepada
YB Datuk Chua Soi Lek
Menteri Kesihatan Malaysia,
Putrajaya.


Per: Permohonan Tarikh Berbincang Dengan YB Menteri Kesihatan

Terlebih dahulu kami, gabungan 81 NGO, Kesatuan Pekerja dan Parti Poltik yang telah menyerahkan memorandum bertajuk “Hentikan Pengswastaan Dispensari di Hospital Kerajaan” kepada YB pada 23 Disember 2004, ingin mengucap terima kasih atas kesudian YB berjumpa dengan kami pada hari tersebut dan mendengar pandangan kami mengenai dispensari swasta di hospital kerajaan.

Dalam perbincangan kami pada 23 Disember 2004, Datuk Chua juga telah mengatakan YB sedia berjumpa kami jika kami ada isu-isu berkaitan dengan kesihatan yang kami ingin berbincang dengan Menteri Kesihatan.

Mengikut surat khabar NST 16 Disember 2004, Kerajaan Malaysia sedang bercadang melaksanakan Skim Tabung Kesihatan Kebangsaan (National Health Financing Scheme) dan bahawa perkara ini telah perolehi sokongan YAB Perdana Menteri. Adalah ramai antara kami yang khuatir kesihatan orang awam akan dijejas oleh pemindahan ini.

Oleh itu kami ingin memohon suatu tarikh awal untuk berjumpa dan berbincang ciri-ciri skim Tabung Kesihatan ini dengan YB

Terima kasih.

Yang Benar

Jeyakumar Devaraj
Setiausaha Gabungan

Medical negligence: Who protects patients' rights?

Another letter to Health Minister Chua Soi Lek

Siapakah yang membela hak asasi berjuta pesakit diMalaysia? Kementerian Kesihatan? Majlis Perubatan Malaysia? Malaysian Medical Association? Media Massa? NGO? Please refer to this Malaysiakini letter.

Ke arah perubatan Malaysia cemerlang, gemilang dan terbilang.

‘Saya yang menurut perintah tuhan’

P. Kumaraguru
Selangor

Minister should heed cries of medical negligence

A letter to Health Minister Chua Soi Lek

You have ignored my cries of ‘medical abuse’ so far. Can you at least hear your fellow doctor crying out in pain in this Malaysiakini letter? Do you seriously believe this to be ‘just another isolated case’?

Will justice be served or will it be swept under the rug yet again because, as usual, the interests of the medical profession comes first before that of patients or even an individual doctor’s? Who is protecting the interests of 25 million patients, I ask you yet again? I dare say it’s definitely not the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) even though it is the Council’s duty to protect the public against errant medical practitioners!

“...the council is not ordinarily concerned with errors in diagnosis or treatment...” Chairman, PIC 1 MMC inquiry (24 Jan 2005). In my opinion, the MMC’s disciplinary inquiry seems to be just a ‘sandiwara’ because, as the Chairman puts it, “…we are obliged to listen…” This was one of the reasons for withdrawing my complaint from the MMC which I brought against a private hospital orthopaedic surgeon.

Please believe there could be tens of thousands of other victims of medical negligence who have cried, who are crying and who will cry in pain due to careless, irresponsible and errant medical practitioners - not forgetting medical errors, adverse drug reactions, etc.

Please urgently (it means right now) reform all medical laws and the MMC, including revamping all of its ‘weak and lame’ policies and procedures to inculcate amongst others - truth, justice, integrity, honesty, speed, accountability, and good governance. The ‘old faces’ in the MMC’s Disciplinary committee who have been too used with the ‘old ways’ need to be renewed as well. The MMC seems to comprise only doctors. What can a complainant (patient/layperson) achieve against six professional doctors in an MMC inquiry? Is it not biased and prejudiced right from the start? Shouldn’t the disciplinary comittee also consist of other stakeholders as well?

Ke arah perubatan Malaysia cemerlang, gemilang dan terbilang.

‘Saya yang menurut perintah tuhan’

P. Kumaraguru
Shah Alam