Health Care in Malaysia The Dynamics of Provision, Financing and Access

The health care system in Malaysia has undergone a fundamental transformation over the last two decades. For many years after Independence in 1957 Malaysia enjoyed widely available and accessible health care services. Funding was through central taxation, and hospital care almost totally provided by government. In the 1980s this began to change under the influence of growing health care demand and utilisation fuelled by rising incomes, urbanisation and the emergent middle classes. The hospital sector is now seeing the rapid rise of corporate, investor-owned services and specialist clinics, whilst the proposed National Health Security Fund will essentially transform Malaysian health care from a taxation-based system to a social insurance system. This book examines this transformation in Malaysia's health care system, and explores the pressing issues it faces today. It describes the evolution of the system since Independence, from the colonial legacy of national provision bequeathed from the British to the impact of the global ideological shift against statism in the 1980s. It considers the responses of the Malaysian state and government policy, and addresses important issues such as equity of provision, women's access to health care services, HIV-AIDS health care, care for the elderly and provision for indigenous peoples. Overall, this book is a detailed examination of the changing face of health care in Malaysia, and its impact on Malaysian citizens, users and society.Barraclough, Simon is the author of 'Health Care in Malaysia The Dynamics of Provision, Financing and Access', published 2007 under ISBN 9780415418799 and ISBN 0415418798.