The proposed 1Care for 1Malaysia healthcare transformation plan is a hot topic of discussion in the public.
It is said that a certain percentage of monthly income is to be contributed by the employees and the employers towards the plan, although the details are still on the drawing board.
First of all, we must distinguish the difference between healthcare and medical care. Healthcare is associated with hygiene, proper diet, exercise, and lifestyle.
What the government could do to improve healthcare is to proliferate the awareness through formal education at the schools and informal education through various means.
The key performance indexes may include the level of awareness among the general public on what is healthy food and what is not, how much food is not considered overeating, how much exercise is essential and practical, how much sleep is sufficient, the level of commitment and habitual changes towards healthcare practices, the reduction of obesity among the public, and the reduction of government spending on subsidised medical care.
Medical care is a poor substitute for healthcare. Free or subsidised medical care gives the people false sense of security and misleads them into neglecting their health until it is too late to find out that even modern medical science is not magic.
There is no free lunch. Ultimately, who pay the bills? Who get the biggest slice of the allocation? Could it be pharmaceutical companies, medical care industries, insurance corporations, bankers, and politicians?
Under the 1Care scheme, if the people are forced to pay and forced to accept a doctor assigned by the government, it is repressive. Many people, whether they are rich or not, do not seek treatment at government hospitals due to the perceived poor service quality, irrespective of the true nature of the services.
After all, it is not the responsibility of the public to grant their trust but for the other party to gain the trust of the public. The tax payers are already subsidising the medical cost of those who use the services of government hospitals.
Even if the 1Care scheme only requires monthly contribution of RM10, it does not give any value to those not using the services and it is not fair. Some people receive medical benefits from their employers, while others subscribe to additional insurance for critical illnesses coverage.
23
Feb
12
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