Blog Post 1

Since I am an international student and I have only been in the United States for two years, I do not have much experiences to talk about the medical system in the States. Hence, I will be writing about my experience and those of my family members in my home country, Malaysia. Basically, Malaysia has a widespread medical system which is a two-tier health care system consisting of both government base universal healthcare system and co-existing private healthcare system. The government base healthcare system is known for its extremely affordable treatment cost without compromising the quality since the healthcare system in Malaysia is highly subsidized by the government. Malaysian society places importance on the expansion and development of healthcare, putting 5% of the government social sector development budget into public healthcare. “The prescriptions in Malaysia cost a fraction of what you pay at home. But it’s not just the cost that is attractive, it’s the service” (The Star, 2019).

My family and I have tried both private and government base healthcare system and I must say both of them are nearly the same quality but with a huge different in cost. My late grandfather had a colon cancer and he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a government hospital for months and was charged approximately MYR 600 ($150) but since he was a retired government servant, he only had to pay MYR 200 ($50). This charge includes the operation fee, the medicines, and all the treatments throughout the months. Usually for a regular check-up, a person will only be charged for only MYR 1 ($0.25). Nevertheless, having an affordable healthcare has its own drawbacks. Based on my experiences and observations, there will be a longer queue in a government base healthcare system with huge crowd of people especially the elderly doing their regular check-up. Another drawback is that most of the patients tend to take their prescribed medicines for granted which eventually leads to a waste. This is simply because they only pay a little amount of money for the medications or in some cases, they do not have to pay at all. However, recently, there is an increasing awareness on issue regarding improper disposal of unused medicines. These leftover, accumulated drugs will lead to environmentally unsound disposal, which can pose exposure risks for humans and wildlife. This happened when leftover medicines are going to the river and sea via trash and drainage system. (Azad et al, 2016). In conclusion, this aspect of Malaysia healthcare system has both positive and negative impacts to the citizens, economics and environments of Malaysia. I personally think that all health practitioner, nurse, pharmacist and pharmacy shop or retailer have to encourage reducing the excess supply of medicine and making aware about the negative impact of unused medications to the patients.

Nevertheless, despite of having an affordable healthcare system, some people still opt for private healthcare even though it costs a lot more. The main reason for this is because they want to avoid all the hassles of queueing up and waiting for hours to see the doctors in government hospitals. On top of that, private healthcare system usually provides a more exclusive service to the customers. In conclusion, this aspect of Malaysia’s healthcare system has both positive and negative impacts to the citizens, economics and environments of Malaysia.

Works cited:

  1. Azad, A. K., Muhammad, K.R., Hossin, M.M., Robiul, I., Abdullahi, M.M. & Islam, M.A. (2016). Medication Wastage and Its Impact on Environment: Evidence From Malaysia. Pharmacology online, 3, 114-21.
  2. Bernama. (2019, February 7). Malaysia ranks 1st in world’s best healthcare category. The Star. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/

2 thoughts on “Blog Post 1

  1. Hey Nursyukrina,

    I am really sorry to hear about your grandfather. When I read your post, it immediately reminded me of the lecture that showed us the many invisibilities of social, economical, political aspects and their affect on health care. As far as I am concerned, it is referred to as invisible because people do not initially think of it first hand when they began to take in and analyze a bioethical dilemma as such. However, after reading several posts including writing my own, I can safely come to the conclusion that these situations can perhaps pose some of the most severe threats to patients and their respective families alike. Hearing about Malaysia’s health care system sounds very interesting, as I can safely say that I would personally like to see some of those aspects potentially being applied to the U.S.’s health care system. Having more than one option may less the attention and prioritization the health care receives from its respective citizens alike. Both the government and private health care systems go on to show how political factors truly end up affecting how a patient can be treated or attended to in the bigger picture.

  2. That is quite interesting, but you’re talking about healthcare delivery systems. Not so much medical systems such as biomedicine or traditional Chinese medicine. It does sound like the dominant Malaysia system is biomedicine though, it would be interesting to compare Malaysian biomedicine with American biomedicine.

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