YOURSAY 'The long and short of the proposed mandatory scheme is that the government has run out of money to fund the existing healthcare system.'

your say Hello: This is another scam to get at the hard-earned money of the average citizen. They have dug their paws into the EPF (Employee Provident Fund), Khazanah, Tabung Haji, and all other funds that they have forced the people to contribute.

They have scammed IWK (Indah Water Konsortium), given away rights of providing drinking water, privatised electricity to their cronies, given away MAS (Malaysia Airlines) for a song and repurchased it at more than market value, given away toll contracts indiscriminately to their cronies, and now they have come out with this scheme to take more of our hard-earned money.

Lovegives: I have no problems contributing the 10 percent of my income, but I do not have confidence on the people that going to manage it. Looking at all the things going wrong (Proton, MAS, EPF), this could be another NFC (National Feedlot Corporation).

Toffeesturn: Will I be wrong to say that this will be managed by CIMB Bank or one of its subsidiaries?

What has happened to the billions of ringgit that workers and their employers put into Socso (Social Security Organisation)? How much of the money went to fund some trips for ministers or some government projects not associated with Socso?

This is daylight robbery by a bankrupt government. Take the money back from the corrupt and we'd be able to solve a lot of things.

Justice Pao: It looks like the BN government has come up with a novel way of filling up the gravy train again. Most of us working in the private sectors do not go to public hospitals as our company's healthcare programme covers all our needs.

Why do we need to contribute to 1Care? Why do I need to contribute to the healthcare of others when I am already paying taxes - income tax, sales tax, etc?

Manjit Bhatia: Will 1Care truly provide ‘equal cover'? Rubbish. If Malaysians do not have equal access to basic needs such as education, security, justice, even food and water, what makes you think 1Care will reverse all that through a national healthcare plan?

If you make six or fewer visits to private clinics or any hospital per annum, how do Health Ministry's Rozita Hussein justify the 10 percent levy on all Malaysians?

There's a hidden agenda here, I think, and it's the regime's attempt to privatise healthcare so it can balance the budget. Look at how more and more hospitals have been privatised over the decade or so. Who owns them? Umno-BN cronies.

Trumpet Call: The long and short of the proposed mandatory healthcare scheme is that the government has run out of money to fund the existing healthcare system in the country. This is due to poor financial governance and massive corruption.

So the inevitable resort is to tax the people - take 10 percent of their income to finance the public health system. This is totally unacceptable and must be resisted at all cost by the rakyat.

This government is going from bad to worse. It is really time for change or else we are all in for a great disaster.

Lone_star: Instead of 1Care, the Health Ministry and the government should be looking into increasing the budget for the present healthcare system and if leakages are stopped or even reduced (for example, NFC, weapon procurement, PKFZ), then there will be sufficient ringgit to finance a better healthcare system.

The present system needs some major tweaks to make it more comprehensive and doing this is better than having a completely new scheme.

The rakyat must express their displeasure with the government for attempting to hoist a new untested system, especially when the present one is not a total basket case.

Stingray: What's wrong with the present system? We spend very little; United States spends twice as much (based on the percentage of GNP). Yet we are better in terms of accessibility, choices of traditional versus western medical systems and cost effectiveness.

Is this the Umno-BN's way to generate more money for Umnoputras and their cronies in insurance and pharmaceutical companies?

Jefferson76: Malaysia only spends 2 percent on healthcare. The World Health Organisation recommends 5-6 percent be spent on healthcare to ensure proper coverage and efficiency.

The reason they don't spend 5 percent is because they wasted it on useless projects and to line their own pockets. Now they want us to make up the difference.

Anonymous_3f55: This is the same government that gives you RM100, RM200 and RM500 to show that they care, then the slap you with 1Care - 10 percent of your monthly income.

Simply the maths suggests that total collection per annum for 1Care can be as much as RM40 billion per year. That is about 25 percent of government's operating expenditure this year and 17 percent of total Budget 2012.

Also, imagine if you're earning RM2,000 per month, the total deduction for 1Care will then be RM2,400 per year and they restrict you to six visits to the doctor. Hello, are you telling me these docs are going to be paid RM400 per visit?

Simple maths tells you that the scheme is a scheme to fleece the rakyat. At most, per visit is about RM40, which means that 1Care's proposed deductions is inflated 10 times. It's time to organise a 1Care 1.0 rally to reject this dubious scheme.

Yvette Charlene: So now my income tax no longer covers public healthcare. They want another 10 percent for that. What's next? Will they want a further 10 percent when the submarines need repair? After all, we are all benefitting from the stout defence of the nation.

And 5 percent more when a collapsed stadium needs to be rebuilt? After all, we all enjoy watching sports. What else? Hungry cows need feeding?

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