I REFER to the recent move by the Pakatan Government to deregulate the consultation fees of private doctors. The Health Minister clearly does not understand how things work in a free market, but I hope he will see quickly how this move will contribute further to the rise in cost of living and the woes of Malaysians in the M40 and B40 groups.
The Health Minister has said the doctor must display the fees and it is up to patients to decide whether they want to continue using his/her service. It sounds good on paper, but the reality is the patient will have to use the service, as he or she would be too sick to go hunting for other doctors at that moment. And when this patient needs to see a doctor again, the fees at another clinic would not be less or significantly less because all doctors, except for a very small minority, would be charging more or less the same amount.
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