Unlike education and culture, health has not been an historically contentious political issue in Malaysia.
The country’s elites were able to purchase private treatment and some (in particular civil servants and their families) even received preferential treatment within the public sector.
Government health services have benefitted all ethnic groups and there has, until recent years, been a strong consensus that heavily subsidized public health care was a progressive policy which furthered the goals of promoting equity, contributed to economic growth and assisted rural development.
Moreover, the cost of providing health care under a welfare model as a percentage of both the total government budget and Gross Domestic Product has not been excessive.