PUTRAJAYA: The government must work on health reforms immediately and all parties must give their support to make it happen before more fall by the wayside when seeking much-needed healthcare, says the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA).

       Its president Dr Koh Kar Chai said they believed that with the right support, initiation of reforms could happen and noted that the issue of healthcare reforms had also been brought up by the Health Minister.

       "Yes, it should be debated in Parliament but we should not allow it to be all words and no action.

       "Both sides of the political divide need to realise that the time for action is now. Hopefully, we don’t need another pandemic to tell us that we have been forewarned," he said in a statement on Wednesday (Sept 29).

       Dr Koh said that various aspects of healthcare were touched on in the 12th Malaysia Plan, which meant that it had all been thought through and well debated.

       While some quarters are of the view that it was not enough and more should have been included, the MMA wants the government to "work on the reforms immediately".

       On the issue of the high cost of medical care that has been highlighted, particularly on social media, the association believes that the cost would definitely continue to increase, maybe exponentially so.

       "Some users of the public healthcare services may not realise it but the cost is high in the public sector too. We don’t see this cost as public healthcare is heavily subsidised by the government.

       "As for the cost of private healthcare, the minute few at the top of the income bracket may look at a few hundred thousand ringgit as small change but the majority who are paying out of their own pocket or rely on health insurance, a health event will be a major blow to them," said Dr Koh.

       He said that to get into the public health system for treatments was possible, adding that the Health Ministry provided for it, but he pointed out the long waiting list and that some may not survive their illnesses.

       "We need to wake up now to the reality that a reform of our healthcare system is needed immediately.

       "We need to fix it now before more fall by the wayside on the journey to obtain much-needed healthcare," he said.