THE Health Ministry (MOH) received considerable attention in Budget 2024.

However, the attention is to go beyond physical facilities and provision, emphasising humanism and advocating a culture of healthy eating.

In a dual-parallel healthcare system, public healthcare will not only be used by those who don’t have insurance, but also those who do, partly due to the limitations and affordability of insurance policies.

A quality and affordable healthcare system will also be helpful in the post-retirement period, which is associated with high insurance premiums but insufficient depth of post-retirement savings.

The issue of public healthcare should therefore be in the common interest of everyone, especially politicians. Even these issues will not win too many votes for politicians.

The culture of senior doctors bullying junior doctors leads to the question of where medical staff in public healthcare facilities are able to create an environment of humanism in the aspects of metaphysics.

It is worth noting that humanism does not refer to VVIP treatment by private healthcare providers, which is associated with high prices, but rather to create an environment in which patients are treated more ethically, morally, with dignity and consideration for their feelings.

As the Health White Paper also advocates disease prevention through healthy lifestyles, the Health Ministry should ensure that all food and drink sold in healthcare facilities promote healthier eating.

This article aims to highlight health issues that are less discussed by the public.

The limits of having insurance at all

With income constraints and high cost of living, low savings and retirement funds, affordable insurance premium but limited coverage, public healthcare is relevant to every citizen of the country.

Current critical illness insurance policies do not cover early critical stages unless the insured is willing to pay more premium for the features.

Critical illness is affordable compared to medical cards, and recently the trend has made the product of critical illness fragmented, leading to more affordable policies but causing higher risk of coverage exclusion that is associated with high medical costs.

Although not everyone buys investment-linked policies, medical cards can be used before reaching the stage of critical illness insurance covered.

It is important to know whether your medical card policy covers outpatient treatment (where applicable).

Insurance products have their own limit on out-of-pocket expenses. The critical illness limit is also shared with the death benefit or permanent disability limit in investment-linked policies.

The medical card is also subject to annual and lifetime limits. Deductible options, which require the insured to pay an amount before the cover kicks in, should be noted.

Before the age of 60 or 70, when insurance policies expire, public healthcare centres may be an option, in addition to using insurance (depending on coverage and limits) in private hospitals.

After the age of 60 or 70, the insurance premium will be high and will deplete retirement savings if they are not sufficient, so public healthcare centres are also essential to support patients until the end of life.

Cultivate humanistic spirit

If senior doctors are bullying junior doctors because of cultural factors, where is the humanistic spirit of the medical staff? Junior doctors are likely to become another monster when they become senior doctors, creating a negative vicious cycle.

This behaviour is also not healthy for cultivating a more humanistic environment in public healthcare facilities.

Treatment becomes a machine, following the procedure and making sure there are no complaints, which in turn discourages the promotion of disease prevention awareness.

Worse still, the cold attitude of medical staff may discourage patients from seeking treatment up to the wellness stage; patients may decide for themselves and stop in the middle.

Humanism can reduce social stigma, especially for highly stigmatised conditions such as skin diseases and mental health.

Medical staff need to encourage patients to seek treatment, rather than reinforce or be unaware of the stigma that prevents patients from seeking treatment.

At the same time, protecting personal information such as medical history is a priority.

If patients are accompanied by family, friends or volunteers, they should be educated on how to break the social stigma, how to support and protect patients, and how to protect patients’ medical privacy.

A place to promote healthy eating

Imagine walking into a public healthcare facility and seeing unhealthy food being sold from a food truck or cafeteria. These foods are associated with excess oil, excess sugar and junk food.

Although eating healthy food may not be the immediate solution to improving the patient’s disease, changing the food and drink sold to be healthier will encourage a healthy eating lifestyle.

This does not necessarily mean setting up shops with well-known healthy food brands, but it can be a more cost-effective and innovative way of preparing food and beverages in a healthier way.

In conclusion, public healthcare centres should not only be a place to save on medical costs, but also stimulate the humanistic spirit and encourage healthy eating lifestyles for disease prevention. – November 6, 2023.

* Nick Tan Beng Teong graduated with Bachelor of Economics at University of Malaya. A member of Agora Society, Tan believes in policy reforms in order to build a better nation.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.