Health Ministry's Yap said the proposed central database will help facilitate and create a standard for both private and public hospitals.
KUALA LUMPUR: The advancement of technology, combined with an ageing society and higher expectations of healthcare, is fanning medical inflation and its rising costs is real.
The Health Ministry’s Health Transformation Unit chief executive officer Dr Yap Wei Aun said despite technological innovation helping people to live longer, it comes with a price.
“While death is a certainty, how and when we die depends largely on how we spend on our health.
“The total health spending in Malaysia from 2021 to 2022 decreased to 4.4% from 5% of the country’s gross domestic product,” he said.
The drop was also due to a lack of investment in preventative care as well as primary care, with Yap saying there were efforts the ministry could begin implementing to mitigate this concern.
“The government can spur innovation and investment and look into how we can improve competitiveness in the market.
“More options for different tiers of healthcare services and its prices can also be offered,” he said.
Yap added that the proposed central database will help facilitate and create a standard for both private and public hospitals.
“The ministry can exercise more stewardship towards the private sector, and a public constraint for what quality is allowed of it.
“Besides that, there is a critical opportunity for the government to invest in efficiency so that as regulators, we don’t end up with inefficiencies being pushed towards the private sector. This will make the system more sustainable,” he said.
Yap opined that transformation in the healthcare system was not a quick fix and needed structural changes to get it going.
“At the end of the day, it requires the consent of the nation. It is your choice as citizens on how much you want to invest in your own health.
“We do hope there will be a consensus to spend more and better on each individual’s health,” he said.
Life Insurance Association of Malaysia CEO Mark O’Dell said the central database will deal with leakages and abuse and will provide a better understanding of competition while educating the relevant stakeholders on its benefits.
“This will be helpful to capture data from the private hospital, Bank Negara as well as the Health Ministry.
“People need to be empowered to help them make better decisions when it comes to healthcare,” he said.
According to O’Dell, the disparity between those insured and non-insured had some impact on the costs of healthcare.
“Some of the reasons are controllable, for instance, creating an insurance product that pays 100% of the bill is a mistake. Because this leads to people not caring about the bill since insurers will pay.
“I’ve spoken to doctors that will take extra care in diagnostics or treatment if they know patients aren’t insured but for those insured, they will not care so much.”
O’Dell said these are big issues that need to be addressed because at the end of the day, it is the consumer’s money, whether it comes out of their own pocket or insurers.
He opined the solution for this were insurance products with deductibles or co-sharing features.
“We are working with Bank Negara on policy documents. In the coming months, new purchasers for insurance will be required to consider products with co-insurance alongside lower premiums,” he said.
He added that insurers and private hospitals can move together in tandem if they find a mechanism to incentivise behaviours between stakeholders.
He said there should be more discussions and relations between private hospitals and payors to ensure everyone was on the same page.
“From an insurance point of view, I have seen no clear evidence that serious cost-containment efforts are being done.
“By this, I mean resources, processes, procedures and reviews that lead to better protocols,” he said.
