PETALING JAYA, Oct 5 (Bernama) -- Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) chairman, Datuk Seri Azman Ujang has proposed that a portion of the healthcare budget be diverted towards awareness campaigns to create healthier Malaysians. 

Agreeing with the adage 'Prevention is Better Then Cure', Azman said through aggressive or systematic health campaigns, the government could cut down expenditure on health care. 

"If we spend say RM10 million on aggressive and systematic health education campaigns, we could reduce our health care costs by perhaps RM100 million or more, by way of less people going to hospitals for medicines and treatment especially for serious medical conditions,” he said in his keynote address at the Life to Years: Longevity, Health & Wellness Conference 2019 here, today.

Azman said, currently the budget to operate government hospitals and healthcare facilities runs into billions and with population increase, some serious concerns have been publicly expressed that a day might come when healthcare might become unsustainable.

“The government is currently bearing or subsidising as much as 97 per cent of the healthcare cost in the country,” he said adding that the percentage has led to the view that Malaysians are an unhealthy lot. 

He also pointed out that the government spent RM2 billion annually to supply medication for 1.6 million civil servants alone.

Azman said, despite being internationally recognised as among one of the countries with the best and cheapest healthcare in the world, Malaysia is no stranger on the statistics of medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity.

He added that Malaysians unhealthy lifestyles such as late night snacking at ‘mamak’ restaurants, excessive salt and sugar intake contributed to the numbers, causing them to fall ill in the long run.

Quoting John F. Kennedy’s historic words, ‘ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country’, he called on the people to help and contribute towards bringing down the exponentially rising cost of healthcare.

“To me, the greatest service that we can do to ourselves and our nation is to stay healthy, to lead a healthier lifestyle in order to reduce the queue at hospitals and clinics, along with our huge healthcare costs,” he said.

The one-day conference was organised by Third Age Media Association of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor with the objective to recognise and celebrate the International Day of the Third Age.

The ‘Third Age’ denotes post middle-age when most people retire and are ready to enjoy getting out of the daily grind of employment.

-- BERNAMA