The proposed National Health Financing  Scheme (NHFS) will not be outsourced to insurance companies but would instead, be managed directly by the government, said Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai.

NONE Giving this assurance, he said under the proposed NHFS, the people would be dealing with the government and not the insurance company as the scheme would be administered by the government, through the proposed National Health Financing Authority, a statutory body under the government.

"It will never be outsourced," he told Bernama in an interview.

He said, even the proposal for NHFS was still being developed and consultation carried out with various stakeholder groups to analyse the best model. The poor will still be cared for, under the scheme.

"Whoever cannot afford or is poor, the government will continue to take care of them. We will never take away their access to healthcare. It is not true that about 70 per cent of the nation's population will lose out under NHFS,

"The government will not only continue to subsidise their healthcare needs  but also improve their accessibility to the healthcare under the scheme," said Liow.

Lopsided healthcare benefits

Explaning the rationale behind the proposed NHFS, Liow said the government wanted to utilise all resources as currently, the Malaysian healthcare system was based on the dichotomy system - the public and private healthcare.

“The government has limited resources, 50 percent are with government and another 50 percent are private healthcare. But the 50 per cent in government healthcare handles 80 percent of the population while the rest (of the population) is handled by the private healthcare.

“If we can get all the doctors together, 100 percent, all the people would have access to a better system. The people can benefit more, waiting time can be cut down and treatment can be sought nearby," he said.

Liow said by having NHFS, the rural population would also benefit as doctors would be equally distributed, adding that the government would pay the doctors.

He explained that the introduction of the NHFS would bring more benefits.

"No matter how we improve the government hospital service, more patients will come, and the waiting time would be long again. At the end of day, what will happen is that the government has to take (in) all the people.

"With this system, we want to make the Ministry of Health smaller, only handle the regulatory while the healthcare provider will be the hospital and clinic.

"We will be the enforcement as by doing this, it would be more efficient," said the minister.

- Bernama