This statement is in response to the Malaysian Medical Association’s proposal to increase public healthcare registration fees

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) believes essential crucial services such as public health care and education for all should be provided free and funded by tax payers’ money.

It is part of the basic responsibility of our government to provide crucial, essential services such as health care and education. These are rights of all people.

Public health care must be provided equally to all people, without any discrimination. There should not be any consideration of race, religion, position and especially economic status. Consideration and assessment of economic status, while you are sick, would affect respecting the dignity of a patient and the very essence of Universal Health Care.

The focus, once a patient has arrived at a public health care facility is to care for the needs of the patient, without any other consideration. There should not be any diversion to look into the patient’s ability to pay. Anyway, how should we do this?

Look at pay slip? Not everyone has pay slips. Bring a bank statement? Show that we have or not have property? How? How about the caregivers’ economic status?

There are many different ways of looking at poverty level and many different components that goes into categorising people into different economic class. It is complex. Income, property, savings, investment, number of dependents, loans, lifestyle, budgeting, financial literacy all matter.

For example, a person may have no income now, but may have lots of savings, which may or may not run out in 20 years. So, which economic class are you going to put that person in? The sick must not be burdened with financial queries or worries.

The money that is collected at RM 1 at outpatient and RM 5 at specialist clinic goes into the general pool of collection, and does not go back directly to the health budget. It really does not matter. In fact, it should be abolished.

Let us all focus on the real issue that we need to fight for together.

There are two major ways to finance public health care according to research worldwide, either through taxation or health insurance. There is enough evidence that progressive taxation method works best. (Chee, Heng Leng. (2023). Why is tax-based health financing better than social health insurance (SHI)?)

The only way to increase our health care budget and to improve our public health care services, including better remuneration for our hard-working doctors and health care staff is to increase taxation of the rich. The rich should be happy to contribute back to society. You are more abled. Aren’t you happy to share with and support those who are less abled? Shouldn’t this be the way we build a better society, who cares for the poor? Isn’t this what every religion teaches us?

Of course, we also need to reduce wasteful expenditure, cut big fat inappropriate allowances and prioritise budget for crucial essential services such as healthcare.

We are not asking for much, only 5 % of the GDP, as recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) and practiced in many countries. Our government is underfunding our public health care by only allocating 2.4 % (2024). This is grossly inadequate.

Let us not get diverted into a storm in a teacup arguing over RM 1 and RM 5 registration fee. Increasing this is not going to increase health care budget or doctors on call allowance.

Dr Cecilia Anthonysamy
committee member
PSM Healthcare Campaign Committee