KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 ― Datuk Seri Najib Razak today touted Malaysia’s healthcare system as among the best in the world, saying it was no match even to “ObamaCare”, the colloquial name for a law enacted in 2010 to reform affordable healthcare in the United States.

This, said the prime minister, is because there is no other health care system in the world that is as affordable as Malaysia’s.

As an example, Najib pointed out that in Malaysia, patients only need to pay RM5 to see a specialist doctor, which he pointed out translates to about US$1.50.

“I am willing to bet that there is no other health care system in the world that has a payment of just RM1 to see a doctor. In Malaysia, if you see a GP (general practitioner) in the government hospital, the payment is just RM1 and to see a specialist is RM5.

“Even Obamacare is no match for Malaysiacare,” Najib told a group of youths while launching the Pemikir Muda Malaysia event at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia today.

Delivering his speech at the PMM living cost roundtable discussion launch, Najib also said Malaysia has very generous healthcare practitioners and that occasionally, medicines are given in excess to help those struggling with high living costs. 

“Sometimes the patients take more medication back home because the doctor is big hearted and kind enough to give extra,” he said.

Malaysians have been railing against Putrajaya over the spike in living costs due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a new consumption tax system that was implemented last month.

Noting the complaints, DAP’s Klang MP Charles Santiago recently pointed out that the rise in prices of daily essentials have made even the cost of healthcare become increasingly out of reach for poorer and even middle class Malaysians.

In a recent statement, the lawmaker urged Putrajaya to implement a pricing policy and monitoring system for all medicines sold here if it truly intends to provide affordable healthcare to all Malaysians.

The GST is a 6 per cent consumption based tax charged on all taxable supply of goods and services that replaced the Sales and Service Tax (SST) on April 1.

Several categories such as basic food items such as rice and flour; public transportation; healthcare and education have been classified as zero-rated and, as such, exempted from the GST.

Over 2,900 medicines were initially placed in the list of zero-rated supplies in the GST. In late March, Customs GST division senior assistant director II Norazura Hashim said an additional of 1,315 medicines were included later on.

The Pakatan Rakyat opposition bloc has opposed the implementation of the consumption tax by saying Malaysians were not financially ready.

The opposition pact also claimed Putrajaya wanted the GST to offset the billions of ringgit in losses incurred through leakages and corruption annually, insisting that the new tax would be unnecessary if the government was more prudent with taxpayers’ monies.