The Ministry of Health has requested a budget of RM30 billion for the upcoming year. Deputy Health Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye said that this amounted to 2.01% of Malaysia’s GDP.
Malaysia’s current health budget stands at RM26.58 billion; which is at 1.87% of GDP. Of that amount, half goes into covering the needs of government hospitals. Dr Lee also said that government spending accounts for 52% of the overall health allocation. With the private sector forming the remainder 48%.
The MOH is targeting expanding its budget to within 4% of GDP in five years. Which Dr Lee is says will bring it within the World Health Organisation’s proposal of between 3.5% and 4%. However, this is still noticeably lower than the recommended 7% of GDP from the WHO.
Healthcare spending will not likely be a huge factor for Pakatan Harapan in Budget 2019, although medical professionals are still concerned about the state of public hospitals. There is a consensus that the government desperately needs to increase spending to keep up with the number of patients, but it looks like any improvements will come incrementally.
