Healthcare in Malaysia

Healthcare in Malaysia is under the purview of the Ministry of Health of the Government of Malaysia. Malaysia generally has an efficient and widespread system of health care, operating a two-tier health care system consisting of both a government-run public universal healthcare system along with private healthcare providers. Within the chronically underfunded public universal healthcare system, specialist services are either free or have low user fees for procedures (however, appliances are fully self-funded out of pocket by the patient, even within the public healthcare system); as such the public healthcare system suffers from high demand, routine congestion, long wait lists, chronic widespread delays along with persistent shortages in healthcare personnel, medical equipment and healthcare supplies. Therefore, private healthcare providers play a pivotal role in providing specialist consultants and general practitioner (GP) services to the Malaysian population; the private healthcare providers complements or supplants the public healthcare system in terms of availability, types of treatments provided and types of materials used.

Public healthcare in Malaysia is solely funded by general taxation; there are no mandatory national insurance contributions to fund the public universal healthcare system. Due to the issues aforementioned regarding the public universal healthcare system, adoption of private health insurance is widespread among the populace, in order for individuals to pay for the high treatment costs charged at Malaysian private hospitals for medical procedures.