New health challenges such as COVID-19 are inevitable. Our resilience and preparedness to effectively respond depend on sound policies and investments made today.
With non-communicable diseases increasing significantly each year and cases of people with chronic kidney disease having more than one or more comorbidities such as diabetes, this is an ongoing funding problem that will not go away simply by excluding a group of people.
Perhaps with disruption and competition from social health insurance which caps payouts to private healthcare providers at more reasonable and transparent levels, can the escalating healthcare costs be finally brought under control.
More than a third of the population in Sarawak and Sabah continue to live beyond 5km of any kind of health facility and have to travel for hours to seek treatment.
Decision will motivate and help support doctors and dentists, particularly those just starting their own private practice, to provide better value, professionalism and higher quality of care.
It is wrong to imply that our healthcare system is too fragile and cannot survive without depending on one single company such as Pharmaniaga taking such a dominating role.