Budget Reaction: MMA says not enough emphasis on health

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian Medical Association president Dr H. Krishna Kumar is of the opinion that the Budget 2015 has not given enough emphasis on health as the World Medical Association recommends that countries should spend 5% of their GDP on health.
"What I see is that the government is allocating just over 3% which is insufficient looking at the need to maintain and improve the Rakyat's health," he told theSun.
He also pointed out that the government need to build more hospitals, taking into consideration the increasing population as the two hospitals indicated in the budget was insufficient.
Dr Krishna commended the government for taking into consideration the plight of the people with serious diseases by waiving the GST implementation on medicines as well as tax relief.
Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia president Datuk Dr Jacob Thomas said he was hoping for more benefits, tax relief, incentives and GST exemptions, especially for the private healthcare sectors but it was not fully reflected in the Budget 2015.
" I only see some 2,900 medicine brands especially to treat 30 types of diseases including heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, cancer and fertility treatment being not subjected to GST. What are these medications," he asked.
He said they have to study the whole list of medicines before commenting whether it will benefit the Rakyat.
"Furthermore, we need to know whether GST is imposed on all other medical related equipments, and consumables as if so it is going to increase the operational cost of private hospitals and this would burden the patients who have to pay more," he added.
Dr Jacob said he need to study the budget in detail before making further comments.
Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh, an independent private hospital specialist said it was a good move by the government to not implement GST on essential medicines and also to give tax relief to those seeking treatment for serious diseases.
"This is definitely a good news to millions," he said, adding that zero GST should also be implemented for health related medicines, medical and surgical equipments and all that is used for patient treatment or else it would burden them.