By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 02, 2012

PETALING JAYA, Feb 2 – The newly-formed Citizens’ Healthcare Coalition (CHC) came out for the first time today to demand the government shelve its proposed “1 Care” insurance scheme, warning that its implementation would spell “disaster” for Malaysia’s healthcare system.

The pact insisted that the present two-tiered model was superior to “1 Care”, which it predicted would only turn healthcare management into a “business”.

“We believe the (current) Malaysian model is superior for the Malaysian environment. We do not want healthcare to be turned into a business.

“We believe there should be both public and private sectors – public as a service-oriented model and private as a corporate model… it is not possible for a service sector model to be corporatised,” Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Associations of Malaysia (FPMPAM) president Dr Steven Chow said during CHC’s maiden media briefing at the Global Business and Convention Centre here this evening.

According to CHC, “1 Care” is a new national healthcare system that will force all households to surrender nearly 10 per cent of their monthly household incomes as contribution to a government-run Social Healthcare Insurance (SHI) scheme.

The group insists that the scheme would not achieve its objective to provide equitable access to healthcare for all segments of society and would only increase costs.

Even worse, the group has said, the SHI scheme only covers very basic healthcare expenditure and poses many limitations such as: every individual is assigned to a primary healthcare provider (PHCP) or general practitioner and cannot select his or her own doctor; the assigned doctor is only budgeted to see each individual a maximum of six times a year; “the cheapest, not-original medicine” will be dispensed; individuals will not be covered for all illnesses, especially intensive care; and if an individual insists on selecting his or her own choice of doctor, he will have to pay out of his own pocket.

The CHC also warned today that despite claims from the authorities that “1 Care” was still at the conceptualisation stage, its engagement with ministry officials indicated that the scheme has already entered phase three of its implementation plan.

“It is past conceptualisation, there already is a blueprint for implementation, which are basically the nuts and bolts of implementation process, to be ready by 2012.

“To us in the medical fraternity, ‘1 Care’ is definitely in the final stages of implementation,” Dr Chow told the press conference.

Another CHC spokesperson, Dr T. Jayabalan concurred, adding that numerous technical working groups have already been formed while even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself had made special mention of “1 Care” during a speech in 2010.

“Another thing is that there have been numerous roadshows held by the ministry… the last one was 10 days ago in Seremban. Definitely, it is afoot,” he said.

But both Dr Chow and Dr Jayabalan agreed that it was still “not too late” to convince Putrajaya to shelve “1 Care”, with the latter pointing out that “elections is around the corner”.

“They (the government) might turn around and say… okay, if you don’t like it (we will shelve it). And elections is around the corner too,” he said.

“If the government does not respond, then they are arrogant,” said Dr Chow.

The duo added that CHC’s “Tak Nak 1 Care” campaign activities are fast gaining attention from the public and in the coming weeks, more would be done to spread public awareness.

“On our side, our association plans to inform its members, hold similar forums in Ipoh, Kuantan, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and Penang.

“We will inform members so they can duly inform their patients, so as much information can be transmitted to the ground,” said Dr Chow.

“The change that can come is through informing others. What action the people would want to take, we will support.

“We will probably also be submitting memorandums, get the NGOs to get the rakyat to petition… We can see far ahead that the country is headed to disaster if it disbands its present (healthcare) system for an American system,” said Dr Jayabalan.

Apart from the forums, CHC has also kicked off its campaign online, using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to spread its message.