Healthcare budget 2019



The Health Ministry is “happy” and “thankful” to the Prime Minister and Finance Minister for increasing the allocation to his ministry by 7.8%.

“This is very encouraging for all the people in Health Ministry,” he told reporters after Budget 2019 was unveiled in Parliament on Friday (Nov 2).

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, who had earlier tabled Budget 2019, said the allocation for health services would be increased to RM29 bil from last year's allocation of RM27 bil.


This allocation includes RM10.8bil to restore clinics and hospitals, as well as for the purchase of medicine and medical equipment.

On the Protection Health Scheme (Peka) for individuals in the B40 group, Dr Dzulkefly said it is expected to benefit 800,000 people. “The scheme for this B40 group starts with RM100mil.

“At the very least we have started with these individuals, which is as many 800,000 people,” he said.

The Peka scheme will involve a pilot health screening project for B40s aged 50 and above.

When asked about the enforcement of no-smoking zones in restaurants and eateries, Dr Dzulkefly said he was not worried about it. “It is not a problem, we will do it, we have enforcement (powers),” he said, adding that he has a “good number” of enforcement officials from his ministry for the matter.

theSTAR 03-11-2018
 
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Malaysia to become ageing population by 2020





GETTING more women to work is one of the key remedies to mitigate the negative impact of an ageing population, according to the Economic Outlook 2019.
It said a rethinking of retirement norms beyond the legal retirement age of 60 is necessary.
Malaysia is at risk of becoming an “ageing population” when 7% of the total population is aged 65 and above, based on the definition set by the World Health Organisation.
As of 2017, the number of people aged 65 and above in Malaysia was about two million or 6.3% of the total population.
In a nutshell, the ageing population would put pressure on economic growth as it would impact productivity, labour participation and saving rates.
It is noteworthy that currently, Malaysia has among the lowest female labour participation rates in Asean, China, Japan and South Korea.
According to a study by Moody’s across the Asia-Pacific emerging markets, closing the gap between the female and male labour force participation by 50% could offset up to 1.7 percentage points of a slowdown in the labour force.
In the case of Malaysia, in 2017, the female and male labour participation rates stood at 54.5% and 80.1%, respectively.
If the gap is reduced by 50%, then it would increase the labour force by an additional 1.3 million to 16.3 million.
The report highlighted that another impact of the ageing population is increasing public expenditure.
The higher life expectancy of the population, particularly pensioners and their dependents, tends to increase pension payments.
Therefore, the current pension scheme may not be sustainable in the long run as it will pose a large financial burden on the government’s fiscal position.
As such, the government should seek ways to reform its pension systems in anticipation of fiscal burdens in the future.
Currently, the civil service pension scheme is adopting the unfunded arrangement of pay-as-you-go, where it is disbursed directly from the government budget.
Therefore, to ensure a sustainable fiscal position in the long run, the civil service pension scheme could be improved and modernised by introducing the defined-contribution scheme for new recruitments in the civil service.

/theSTAR 03-11-2018

Disclaimer: Views or opinions expressed are solely those of the Author and should be used with discretion. The Author shall not be held liable for any acts or omissions arising from the use of the information. The user will be personally liable for any damages or other liability arising hereof.

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