Rated among the world's best, Malaysia's universal healthcare — depending on means, affordability, preference and patience — is generally organised into four segments.
First, government-provided general hospitals and district clinics: the historic go-to healthcare service for everyone, including migrants.
These facilities, while strained and congested in some parts, are mostly competent and well-equipped but heavily subsidised and mostly free.
Second, private hospitals and clinics for people who can afford it or with medical insurance coverage.
Third, the neighbourhood pharmacy for people who rely on their resident pharmacist for medical advice and purchases, especially on economical generic drugs.
Fourth, traditional medicine, the "acquired taste" for people opting for the ethnic physician, herbalist or bomoh to treat assorted ailments, real or supernatural.
Lodged in the second category is the bane and the boon of all healthcare: health and medical insurance. Only 31 per cent of Malaysians own personal medical insurance while 42 per cent have neither personal nor company-issued medical insurance, with some unable to get coverage for pre-existing conditions or can't sustain the costlier premiums.
Depending on age, risks and terms, medical insurance premiums run at a monthly average of RM100 to RM500. So, when insurers quietly announced they are springing a jolting 40 to 70 per cent spike in medical insurance premiums next year, people beseeched Bank Negara Malaysia to probe the proposed hike.
Insurers were quick to blame the hike on spiralling costs of private hospitals' medical care. To be sure, rising healthcare cost is a global manifestation: Malaysia is no different. Furthermore, medical claims payouts have jumped 26 per cent, stemming from soaring private supplies and services, the biggest aspect of medical claims costs.
In their defence, private hospitals blame runaway costs of advancements in medicine, treatment and equipment, and mandatory, and very expensive, adherence to the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act. Still, there is a ready solution to this episodic pickle: government healthcare.
For a nation enjoying virtually free healthcare and historically low medical insurance premiums, next year's imminent premium spike is admittedly more of an irritant than a crisis.
But for those who can't acquiesce, turning to government healthcare is a reliable and far cheaper alternative. Perhaps what's required is a newfound respect for government healthcare and not taking it for granted. The drawback: if all citizens turn to government hospitals, it will inevitably aggravate the current strain and congestion on medical personnel and resources.
The service is getting a funding boost though: the RM32 billion expenditure in 2023 surged to RM35 billion this year and to RM45.3 billion next year. With or without medical insurance coverage, Malaysians must realise how privileged they are to be bequeathed with this cradle-to-grave right to healthcare.