KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Health White Paper will propose the setting up of a Healthcare Reform Commission to monitor, advise and report on the status of healthcare reform implementation to the government, Parliament and the people.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the proposal is aimed at further future-proofing the country’s healthcare system.
“Having a transparent and well-appointed Healthcare Reform Commission would, we hope, inject a level of institutional check-and-balance and stability into the healthcare political economy, supporting structural reforms no matter what the future holds,” he said.
Khairy said this in his keynote address titled “Future-Proofing Public Health Care” delivered at the Public Health Thought Leadership Dialogue which was held at the National University of Singapore (NUS) on June 2 when he was in the republic as a Lee Kuan Yew Exchange Fellow.
The text of his speech was made available to Bernama yesterday.
“The Health Ministry is considering four broad areas of reform in developing a Health White Paper aimed at making the case for structural changes as tough as they may be to future-proof Malaysia’s healthcare system.
“The first area is equitability of access, which includes defining quality aspects which basic medical services should cover, reducing the regional gap in healthcare facilities and having a clear framework for cost-benefit assessment.
“As a first step, one of the key structural reforms that Malaysia is currently studying is to grant greater operational autonomy to our public hospitals, so that these overburdened and constrained flagship institutions are given the room to be more responsive to the changing needs of the population,” he said.
“The second area is sustainable healthcare financing because since the onslaught of Covid-19, financing healthcare is increasingly being seen as an investment rather than an expense.
“Indeed, investment in the healthcare system should be perceived as an investment for the country’s development, just like investment in education,” he added.
“The third aspect is governance, oversight and accountability, and the Healthcare Reform Commission is one of the proposals to ensure the direction of reform is followed through.
“The last aspect is bringing ‘health’ back to healthcare, as presently it is more on the sickcare side,” said Khairy.
He said Covid-19 is a wake-up call and the opportunity for a big reset, and the long overdue systemic reforms must be put in place now.
On another matter, Khairy said Malaysia hopes to be the first country in the world to enact a tobacco generational endgame when a proposed landmark legislation is brought to Parliament next month.
“If this law is passed, Malaysians born after 2005 will never ever be able to buy or use any smoking products anymore. The end.
“The end for smoking and tobacco. There are those who believe that banning is never the solution; I am determined to make this work,” he said.
