ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the central question to arrive at an understanding of the status of healthcare in Malaysia. It begins by giving an overview of the transformation in healthcare provision and financing over the last half century or so, focusing mostly on the changes that have come with the privatisation policy of the mid-1980s. The chapter investigates the tensions and vested interests underlying the contestations in the context of the politics of healthcare. It explores regulatory shortcomings in the shaping of Malaysian healthcare which face the danger of being overlooked while the politics over the healthcare financing issue is being played out. Official documents have repeatedly laid out the main problems faced by the government healthcare sector. Namely, 'shortage of skilled personnel, movement of health professionals from the public sector to the private sector, inadequate expertise in some critical areas, and difficulty in placement and retention of doctors and nurses in more remote areas'.
