The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has called on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to expedite the implementation of the national health financing scheme - a special medical fund for the poor.

MMA national health committee chairperson Dr P Krishnan said the delay sparked off unnecessary rumours that health financing was going to be privatised.

He was speaking at the International conference on health reforms and financing organised mainly by Universiti Sains Malaysia's (USM) national poison centre in Penang yesterday

Krishnan proposed that a National Health Financing Authority (NHFA) be established by an act of Parliament to handle the scheme on the basis that it would be a predominant single-payer system.

"The NHFA must be wholly owned by the government and managed as a non-profit entity. It should not be privatised," he told the 100-odd participants.

On March 3, 2001, the then health minister Chua Jui Meng announced that a NHFA would be set-up over the next five years to oversee the forming of the proposed health scheme.

Although there were no operational details, the 8th Malaysian Plan (2001-2005) suggested that this would not preclude a continuing, complementary role for private health insurance.

But what raised eyebrows was that Chua did not rule out the possibility that the NHFA itself could be privatised.

Obvious interest

Meanwhile, USM's Development Studies Programme Associate Professor Dr Chan Chee Khoon said the insurance industry has an obvious interest in blocking the establishment of a national health insurance to keep the field clear for private initiatives and medical underwriting.

He said the most objectionable consequence of such developments was that those at the highest risk of falling ill such as the elderly and pensioners would be the ones least able to afford premium and treatment.

He added that health care privatisation in Malaysia was largely driven by politically-connected corporate entities and their foreign partners who see vast business opportunities with lesser interference by the state.

"It has little to do with burdensome public expenditures, cost efficiency, client responsiveness or greater consumer satisfaction," said the don.

Pressure on media

Speaking at the same conference, editorial consultant and journalist Padmaja Padman advised health activists to create a community for their cause that can operate outside the media.

She urged activists to collaborate with non-governmental organisations, patient support groups, academicians, researchers, medical personnel and legislators to get their message across.

She warned that corporations will not watch quietly but will actively send out their delegations to newsrooms with their own spin on issues.

"There will be pressure from both government and advertisers on the media. The media does not work in a vacuum, it is influenced by the climate in which it operates," she said.

The two-day conference was officiated by head of World Health Organisation (WHO) collaborating centre for drug information and director of the NPC Dr Rahmat Awang.

Ten papers on various healthcare topics were presented by activists and experts from Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines.

SUSAN LOONE is malaysiakini's

Penang-based contributor.