What with rising costs of living and subsidies getting slashed left and right, you’d think Malaysia’s got it all bad when it comes to forking out for anything. Not so: American magazine International Living ranks Malaysia’s healthcare system as being the third best on its list of 24 surveyed countries, beating out Spain, Italy, Ireland and New Zealand, scoring an astounding 95 points out of a possible 100.
The index published by the Baltimore-based publication praised Malaysia’s healthcare, with InternationalLiving.com‘s Asia correspondent Keith Hockton saying that the medical expertise of our local healthcare practitioners is “equal to or better than what it is in most Western countries.”
He adds, “Health care costs are so low that you can pay out of pocket for many standard procedures. A regular doctor’s visit costs USD16 (RM53) and a dental check-up costs USD9 (RM30).” The report notes however that foreigners are not allowed access to Malaysia’s affordable healthcare system at this time.
The top two countries on the list are France and Uruguay, which scored 97 and 96 points respectively.
To gauge the the score of each country on the list, the magazine evaluated both the cost and quality of healthcare provided.
“How much a typical visit to a general practitioner tells you a lot, as does cost and the coverage particulars of health insurance.
“Also considered are the number of people per doctor, the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people, the percentage of the population with access to safe water, the infant mortality rate, life expectancy, and public health expenditure as a percentage of a country’s GDP,” said the magazine.
Still, we wish our hospitals would be a fair bit safer and not shut down or go up in flames as often as they do. Hey, we can dream, right?
Photo: Phalinn Ooi / Flickr
Source: The Star Online
