Healthcare Spending

There is two aspects of healthcare. The financing part and the delivery part. I tend to focus on the financing part.

 There is two main yardstick on healthcare financing that I wish to delve on. 
1) Total healthcare spending as per GDP
2) Public-Private share of healthcare spending.

For now, I like to comment on the public-private share of spending. In Malaysia, public spending is 52% vs private which is 48%( 7% private Insurance , 39% Out of Pocket spending 2% others).

Public Spending(via general taxation): 
Ideally, I would prefer public share to be north of 80% similiar to Scandinavian countries like Denmark , Finland, Norway and even Netherlands. Higher public spending means,every Malaysian regardless of income class get almost equal access.This is used to be the case in Malaysia prior to 1980s.

Private Spending
Out of Pocket(OOP) spending here is a source of concern. For most part, out of pocket here refers to lump sum money you pay when u use private hospitals(do not have insurance coverage), 39% is one of the highest in the world & WHO has told Malaysia to rein in our Out of Pocket spending & bring it down to an healthy 20%. Out of Pocket spending leads to medical debt. 9.3% of almost 200k folks enrolled in AKPK's debt management program are due to medical debt.

Govt proposed voluntary private healthcare insurance. RM50million was allocated to come up with one under budget 2018. Admittedly , its does reduce Out of Pocket spending.

However, there is already an existing public insurance scheme in place. and it cost nothing to initiate. Its cost sharing , risk pooling not profit scheme. its called the General taxation.