| For Budget 2020, a total of RM30.6 billion as compared to RM28.7 billion in 2019, has been allocated for healthcare; an increase of 6.6 percent. Fomca fully supports the increasing investment in public healthcare. Further, it fully supports the continuing strengthening of public healthcare. With this increasing investment, more hospitals can be built as well as health and dental clinics can be upgraded. Currently, public hospitals have a 16,000 bed shortage.
Further, there are some specialised areas in which there is an acute shortage of specialists in public hospitals, for example, in areas of nephrology and neurology. Thus it is proposed that the government should take active measures to train and recruit specialists for the public sector. More importantly, there needs to be better measures to ensure that trained and specialised doctors continue to serve in public service.
Further, medical insurance premiums have been skyrocketing, making it unaffordable to low and middle-income consumers. For a start, Fomca suggests greater transparency in pricing by the private hospitals so that consumers make an informed decision when choosing private-sector treatment as well while being well aware of the potential costs.