Care to share with us details of 1Care?


'This tells us a lot about the hostility and mistrust Malaysians feel every time BN comes up with a new idea.'

Liow: 1Care being manipulated to scare public

your sayRocky: If you (Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai) think people are being misled, then share with us the details. Why the secrecy? The 1Care programme has been mooted since August 2009 and there have been Powerpoint presentations from way back then.

Your ministry has discussed with the pharmacists on a new bill but yet you do not want to share details with us, the rakyat, who will be the ones 'enjoying' this 1Care healthcare. Why?

Engage and consult with the people, you say, but why are you not doing that? Trust you? Sorry, since the Tung Shin Hospital tear-gas incident, I do not trust you at all because you lied even when there was evidence.

Foo: Liow, definitely people are confused, but confused by whom? Why is information leaked in bits and pieces? Why not put the whole issue on the table for everyone to see? Then I'm sure no one will be confused.

Dood: Come on, don't take us for naive fools. For many companies, the employer's contribution will somehow be "shared" by the employee, and the government's contribution is ultimately public money anyway.

The only people who are scaring the public with 1Care are the people who came up with 1Care.

P. Dev Anand Pillai: Liow, you are a disgrace to the Health Ministry. It will be best that when the next cabinet is formed after the next elections, a medical doctor be named the health minister.

Perhaps if that person is true to his Hippocratic oath, he will understand the plight of the poor, low-wage earners and lower middle class segment of society.

Does this person understand what it means to have to fork out more to pay for visits to government clinics and hospitals when it is the government's duty to give us proper healthcare from the taxes that we are already paying now?

It is not being scared, it is being wise to not accept everything that the government proposes.

OMG: I am one of the small percentage of Malaysians who actually pay income tax. I also purchased private medical insurance to cover my own family's needs.

Not only do I contribute to my country's coffers, I am also not a burden to their health system.

Why the heck should I contribute one sen more to a government that can't even manage a soft loan of RM250 million to the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) prudently?

Changeagent: You're the one who is trying to 1Scare us, Liow Tiong Lai. Everybody knows that the government won't be co-funding this scheme after struggling with 14 consecutive budget deficits since 1998. Ultimately, the onus will be forced onto the taxpayers to fund it ourselves.

With rising fuel prices, reduced food subsidies and the possibility of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) being implemented, I'm not sure if this is an extra financial burden that the public can afford to shoulder.

Besides, why should taxpayers be made to pay for the financial indiscipline of the government who choose to spend significant amounts of its budget on frivolous expenditures like submarines, 1Malaysia email, KR1M, IPPs, Apco and the FBC Media news-fixing scandal, just to name a few?

Health spending should always take precedence over any of these irresponsible discretionary spending. There's no two ways about it.

Paul Warren: Minister, so what if the 10 percent comes from the three parties you now claim it comes from. I work, so let's say I pay two percent and in my name my employer pays three percent and the government pays five percent.

Fine, maybe I now pay less in medical insurance. But is this not a mechanism to enrich whoever is going to be in control of compensating the doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, etc?

You and your colleagues may have been rather angry with the forum, but it is through people like you, through your naivete, that cronies enrich themselves by hijacking everything for themselves.

Ng Boon Hock: Let us get real. The contribution from the employer will ultimately be borne by the employee because the employer will have less money for wages and so the employee will have less increment.

Sarajun Hoda: This tells us a lot about the hostility and mistrust Malaysians feel every time BN comes up with a new idea.

Almost every time, new projects are mooted to rob the people and a few elite cronies will grow richer. People just don't believe BN anymore.

Ksn: What is not explained is the need for a new system and the opposition to it comes from the lack of public confidence in the present government.

All our public policies are designed and implemented for the benefit of a few cronies and vested interests at the expense of the people with additional financial burden on them.

What is the need for this new scheme when the present system is working satisfactorily. It needs constant upgrading, that is all.

Healthcare is a social responsibility of the government, funded by taxpayers' money. As PKR's putative spokesperson for healthcare, Dr Tan Kee Kwong, very aptly pointed out, our expenditure on healthcare is two percent of the GDP, while other countries spend five percent or more.

It is not the 10 percent that is the only worry, although it is nearly as much as the EPF (Employees Provident Fund) contribution. While EPF is savings, this 10 percent is expenditure, which not justifiable in a relatively rich country like ours.

We will save more funds if corruption and abuses are stopped. So Liow, drop the idea once and for all. It does not sell.

Kenneth_2585: It is so obvious that the initial idea was to tax the rakyat 10 percent directly, after the huge public outcry, they twisted around and said six percent contribution from government.

Hey, isn't the contribution from government is still our money? Which department from government will pay for it and from where do they get the money?

YF: The rakyat were duped to pay tolls so that the government can build roads? So what is the purpose of the road tax? For somebody's coffers?

Now the rakyat have to pay an additional ‘tax' for hospital service? Then why is the rakyat paying income tax in the first place? More money going to cronies?

Soon we will have to pay a tax for the services of the police, fire brigade, and everything under the corrupt government.

Ever heard of the Boston Tea Party? More taxes and the people will go amok.

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