The provision of subsidized public health care services is also still an important element in national integration since remoter rural areas and the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak are still disadvantaged in terms of access to health care services in comparison with urban areas in Peninsular Malaysia.
The way in which the government has approached the task of seeking to reorientate Malaysia’s health care system away from a welfare model has suggested considerable sensitivity to political ramifications.
There has been a high degree of secrecy surrounding policy deliberations, leading the Malaysian Medical Association to express its concern at the lack of public debate on health policy