Selected country experiences
Malaysia
Related documents
(From the document) In general, the available evidence demonstrates that the Malaysian health system achieves remarkably high and equitable health status at relatively low cost. However, some signs of dissatisfaction and the persistence of an active private sector start to raise questions about the public health services' responsiveness. Since public services are currently provided at very low cost, the system is probably very "fair" in the sense that no one is excluded from receiving care on the basis of ability to pay. On the other hand, the perception that private care is better quality, or the greater convenience of private care, leads a number of people to pay for services that they could otherwise get for free or at highly subsidized rates. In part because of this, the government has encouraged the expansion of private or privately-managed care in several ways. The challenge, however, is to ensure that the systems' highly equitable nature is maintained even with such reforms.