Health for All..

I must, first of all, applaud Dr ONG HEAN TEIK, Dr HANIFFAH ABDUL GAFOOR & Dr S.P. PALANIAPPAN for taking up so much of their time to write this very informative column.. Health for All..(Sunday Star 24 April, Health at large). The views espoused by them are so important for the public to know and to consider and ruminate upon, that I am appealing to The Star to disseminate this column again in other forms so that it will reach other audiences, and those who do not normally read this paper. This is a matter regarding our health and the cost of healthcare, and is literally a matter of life and death. The President of the United States was elected on his campaign promise to reform the Health Care system of the country, so important is this issue to all.

I would just like to draw our attention to the more important points that have been raised by the good doctors, though I feel the whole feature should be used as a forum for public debate.

It has been suggested that rather than implementing a financing scheme for primary care to be again administered by, what is now a popular practice by the Govt., an ubiquitous private company, akin to a Master Insurance company, which will dictate, among other things, number of patients for each doctor, type of medicines to be prescribed, restrictions on other outpatient services and medication to be given, restriction on patients seeing other than the designated doctors and vice versa, prohibiting the patients' freedom to have a choice of their own home doctors, etc. The column has opined that all such mandatory measures will just add to the inefficiency and cost of Primary health care, and not otherwise.

The column has also suggested that it's the shortage of public hospitals and public health care that is the cause of our problems, and improving and adding public hospitals must be the first step towards improving health care to the public.

The column is very sober reading indeed, and I would like to end by quoting from it... "No other country in the world has started a financing scheme for outpatient clinics before dealing with the more expensive, and more important, problem of hospitalisation costs".... The poor must not end up the big loser, as we saw recently when the Private Healthcare Act was used to close down charity dialysis centres.It is our duty as responsible citizens to try to look after the sick, irrespective of income level. Since the Government derives its revenue from all tax payers, it must not seek to profit from its activities, but develop a system to protect the health of all, especially those unable to pay for their own needs.--"

In ending my appeal, I would like to give an example of my wife's medical insurance(Pacific Insurance) and how unilateral increases in the annual premium was forced upon her, to either cover the costs of unscrupulous medical increases made by others, or to force her to abandon her insurance cover just when she may need it the most. The annual premium increased from RM1800 in 2010 to RM5423 in 2011, and there were no prior claims made on the policy.

We need the Government to provide its citizens with adequate and dignified health care, and not to think of profiteering from it, either directly or indirectly.

That much is owed to us,

Provide adequate healthcare..