LETTER | The Health Ministry’s newly introduced private healthcare scheme, Rakan KKM, is a cause for deep concern.

This initiative risks violating principles of fairness and medical ethics, potentially disadvantaging lower-income groups in accessing essential healthcare.

The MCA Consumer Affairs Bureau believes that offering an “express lane” for paying patients distorts the fundamental purpose of public hospitals, which should operate on the principle of “equal access based on need, not wealth.”

By prioritising those who can afford faster treatment, we risk turning healthcare into a privilege rather than a right.

Available data suggests that government hospitals, already struggling with staff shortages and heavy workloads, are seeing longer waiting times for general and specialist appointments since the introduction of this scheme.

Resources are being diverted to serve “premium patients,” while lower-income individuals face delays of six months to a year or worse, miss critical treatment windows entirely. This is deeply troubling.

Public healthcare should guarantee timely, high-quality treatment for every citizen, regardless of financial status. Yet the Rakan KKM model effectively sells priority access to those who can pay, forcing the less privileged to endure longer waits.

Their suffering should not be the cost of convenience for the wealthy.

Worrying precedent

While the government insists this is not a privatisation effort, the scheme’s commercial approach sets a worrying precedent. If hospitals begin operating on a “pay-to-jump-the-queue” basis, public trust in the system could erode.

Healthcare is a basic human right, not a luxury. We are concerned that this scheme will deepen inequality, allowing wealth, rather than medical urgency, to determine who gets treated first.

Our bureau urges the government to uphold the original mission of public healthcare: prioritising patients based on need alone.

Without proper safeguards, the Rakan KKM scheme may worsen systemic inequities, strain hospital efficiency, and prolong waiting times for ordinary patients.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.