Increase health allocations by 100%, says Khairy
KUALA LUMPUR: Public health expenditure must be increased to 5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) to ensure Malaysia has a world-class public health system in the future, says health minister Khairy Jamaluddin. He said in any upper middle-income country, the benchmark for public health expenditure is 4% to 5%…
KUALA LUMPUR: Public health expenditure must be increased to 5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) to ensure Malaysia has a world-class public health system in the future, says health minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
He said in any upper middle-income country, the benchmark for public health expenditure is 4% to 5% of GDP.
He said Malaysia is only allocating 2.59% of GDP for public health expenditure, thus causing many to complain of the long wait to get services such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scan in government hospitals.
”I know all ministries are also seeking allocations from the prime minister and all ministries are equally important but some ministries are more important than others.
“As George Orwell said in his book, ‘all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’.
“In the same spirit, the ministry was created more equal than others as our core business revolves around the lives and deaths of people,” Khairy said at the opening of the 2022 Health Policy Summit here today. — Free Malaysia Today