Bank Negara governor Datuk Seri Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour.
KUALA LUMPUR: There is both room and opportunity for Malaysia to reduce its high medical inflation, one of the highest in Asia, through reforms under Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) RESET health financing initiative.
BNM governor Datuk Seri Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour said Malaysia’s medical inflation rate stood at 15 per cent compared with the regional average of 11 per cent, based on data from Aon International Insurance Brokers.
"However, with the right reforms and collaboration, this can be addressed,” he said during a panel session titled "Rising Cost, Rising Stakes: Expediting Reforms to Address Medical Inflation”, at the Sasana Symposium 2025, here today.
Abdul Rasheed said the initiative was not merely a response to rising costs but a broader reset of the ecosystem involving multiple stakeholders, including hospitals, insurance providers, physicians and patients.
He emphasised that previous BNM annual reports had highlighted the issue of high inflation and the need for reform.
"In December last year, we introduced new measures which provide some room for us to address this issue that has been confronted for a long time.
"With the involvement of the World Bank and various government entities, I am confident that this time the reforms will be implemented effectively,” Abdul Rasheed said.
The RESET framework is anchored on five strategic thrusts and supported by 11 dedicated working groups, and among of its objectives are to redesign health insurance products to better support value-based healthcare services, improve the availability of tools for consumers to assess and select appropriate coverage, and enhance price transparency, especially in procedures, medication and hospital fees.
The governor noted that one of the challenges faced by patients is the wide variance in treatment costs, with little transparency on actual prices.
"Efforts are also underway to establish a national healthcare database by consolidating information from hospitals, insurers, the Ministry of Health and universities to better monitor healthcare costs and outcomes,” he said.
Abdul Rasheed also underscored the importance of digital health systems in ensuring continuity of care, citing the example that diagnostic results, such as X-rays conducted at primary care clinics, should be transferable to hospitals to avoid unnecessary duplication and reduce costs.
The RESET initiative, he said, is also working toward the rollout of a base health insurance product that offers essential coverage at affordable prices.
"The design of this product is expected to come out by the second half of this year, with pilot testing targeted to run by next year. Hopefully, we can finalise the pilot before the end of 2026, that is, before the expiry of the current interim measures period,” he said.
Abdul Rasheed said the goal of RESET is to ensure protection for all, enable insurance portability and broader coverage, while also strengthening primary care and preventive services to improve overall healthcare outcomes.
"We want to ensure protection for everyone and better performance of the healthcare system, especially at the primary care and preventive levels,” he said, adding that full digitalisation of services will be critical to reducing unnecessary procedures and maximising healthcare spending efficiency.
With coordinated implementation, the RESET initiative can deliver long-overdue improvements in access, affordability and performance of Malaysia’s healthcare system, said Abdul Rasheed. - Bernama
