Stop stalling, push Health White Paper in Parliament: MMA

Summary

• Malaysian Medical Association urges lawmakers to act on Health White Paper, citing delayed implementation despite existing frameworks.

• MMA president-elect Dr Thirunavakarasu Rajoo says solutions are known but lawmakers remain silent, warning that the public will be stuck in endless forums without policy action.

• Forum panellists, including ex-deputy health minister Lee Boon Chye, question sincerity of stakeholder engagements, calling some merely performative.

The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has urged lawmakers to discuss key reforms outlined in the Health White Paper (HWP) to improve the national healthcare system.

While acknowledging the necessity of stakeholder engagements, MMA president-elect Dr Thiryunavakarasu Rajoo highlighted that the HWP already outlines the frameworks needed to better the healthcare sector.

“The issue here is that everyone knows the problems and solutions, (but) the HWP is just sitting somewhere (despite how) the entire framework is already there.

“We must ask our MPs why they are not bringing (matters detailed in the) HWP to Parliament and talking about it there,” he said while speaking as a panellist at a forum in Universiti Malaya today.

He added that without proper implementation of the HWP framework by the government, the public will have to resort to constantly host discussions to address healthcare issues.

“We can have hundreds of forums, but we also have to push for the framework to come out,” he said.

The forum, titled “Counting the Cost of Care: Can Malaysia Make Healthcare Affordable Again?”, was organised by a student-led committee as a sequel to the National Healthcare Forum held earlier this year.

15-year blueprint

The HWP, a strategic blueprint by the Health Ministry, aims to revamp Malaysia’s healthcare system over a 15-year period from 2024 to 2039.

Unveiled in 2022, the HWP outlines long-term structural changes, particularly by addressing systemic challenges in healthcare and proposing reforms in service delivery, financing, and governance.

The paper moved through several key milestones in June 2023 - it received the cabinet’s approval and was later tabled in Parliament by then-health minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa, following which it was passed.

On May 6, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reportedly said the government was mulling a revamp of the healthcare financing system to ensure its long-term sustainability, inclusivity, and effectiveness - as envisioned under the HWP.

Mere theatrics

Former deputy health minister Lee Boon Chye cheekily said that while the government is required by law to hold stakeholder engagement sessions on its proposed policies, such discussions might not actually take place.

“I know that stakeholder engagements are needed for all new laws and regulations.

“(But), I also know that sometimes, when they say ‘stakeholder engagements’, they’re just being ‘wayang’ (putting up a show).

“Sometimes, they can just produce a report that they have already engaged with stakeholders,” he said during the forum’s question-and-answer session.

READ MORE: KINIGUIDE | How will Health White Paper affect you?

Lee was responding to a remark by an audience member on an apparent lack of transparency and stakeholder engagement organised by the government as part of its policy formulation processes.

Also part of the panel discussion was Life Insurance Association of Malaysia CEO Mark O’Dell as well as public health physicist and clinical epidemiologist Dr Nirmala Bhoo-Pathy.

The nearly six-hour-long session, which also featured former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin as a special guest, was moderated by patient advocate and Vital Signs Asia co-founder Manvir Victor.

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