Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 27): Budget 2018 is a bold step towards sustainable health financing with a commitment towards the implementation of voluntary health insurance scheme, but falls short on increased drug allocation, according to the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy.

Chief executive Azrul Mohd Khalib said the RM27 billion allocated within the budget for healthcare shows the government's commitment to innovate and create sustainable conditions within the Malaysian healthcare sector. However, he believes a more sustainable healthcare financing mechanism is needed to resolve the issue as a whole.

"In reality, the national budget allocation can never really commensurate with the medical cost. Hence, there is a need for a separate healthcare financing mechanism to complement the existing framework and government allocation," he said in a statement, following the tabling of Budget 2018 earlier today.

On the sum of RM10 million allocated for the treatment of cases of rare diseases, Azrul applauds the government as Malaysia is one of the few countries in the region to provide public subsidies for rare diseases. He said the lack of awareness of rare diseases has resulted in patients being deprived of welfare assistance and services.

"I hope that with this specific mention of rare diseases in the national budget, there will be more attention and consideration by the government to include new innovator drugs into the Ministry of Health drug formulary and to support more patient drug assistance programmes," he added.

Meanwhile, Azrul raised concern over the allocation for the supply of drugs, consumables, vaccines and reagents which remains similar as this year's allocation at around RM4 billion. He said there were 10 million more outpatient cases recorded in 2016, compared with the previous year, and this year is expected to end with even higher numbers.

"This is cause for concern, as an insufficient allocation could result in shortages of essential drugs needed to treat diseases, particularly non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, heart disease and diabetes. These shortages, which have already occurred in the past, will affect those (who are) most vulnerable, such as senior citizens, pensioners and those from the lower income bracket," Azrul added.

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