PETALING JAYA: There will come a time when the public healthcare system in Malaysia can no longer cope with rising costs and the increasing demand from patients.
To overcome these challenges, the country will need a more transparent and sustainable system with an enhanced platform for public-private partnership, according to a health expert.
This has prompted the Health Ministry to look into forming partnerships with private healthcare providers, particularly to address the escalating costs, said Dr June Choon, a lecturer at the school of pharmacy at Monash University.
Choon, who is also co-chair of the ongoing Monash Health Economics Forum 2019 held here, said yesterday that the evaluation of success and failure in public-private partnerships’ performance must be carried out along different dimensions, for example, in terms of financials, equity, access and quality of healthcare.
On the issue of costs, she said while new and innovative drugs are more capable of saving lives, it can be a strain when it comes to drafting a budget to procure them.
“The challenge comes in the form of how to provide optimal health outcomes for patients without bankrupting them or the healthcare system,” she said.
In terms of financing, Choon said generally, healthcare in Malaysia is financed through general revenue and taxation collected by the federal government.
“The total health expenditure has steadily increased from 3.03% to 4.24% of GDP per capita from 1997 to 2017,” she said.
However, a significant portion of healthcare spending in the private sector consists of private household out-of-pocket payments and through private health insurance.
Choon also said the government is looking at introducing a voluntary health insurance scheme for Malaysians, which is likely to be rolled out through some form of public-private partnership.
“According to analysts, this could be done with a single-payer, multi-provider system to keep premiums affordable, instead of the current coverage offered in the market.
