The corporatisation and privatisation policies of Malaysia’s health care system are deciding who lives and who dies in this country.

A recent case, for example, illustrates how the corporatisation of government hospitals contributed to the death of a man in the prime of his life.

According to a report in the Sun on 21 Jan 2010, hotel worker Ahmad Nazri Ibrahim, 48, died because of bureaucratic delays and non-acceptance of the letter of guarantee from the Employee’s Provident Fund (EPF) stating that he and his wife had sufficient savings to pay for life-saving cardiac surgery costing RM 19,000 at the Penang Hospital.