KUALA LUMPUR, 8 FEBRUARY, 2012: Gerakan wants the Health Ministry to be open on the 1Care insurance fund proposal which requires all employees and businesses to pay 10 per cent of their monthly income for healthcare proposes.

   
Gerakan deputy president Datuk Chang Ko Youn said Malaysians needed to know the precise details of the scheme before they could make an informed decision if such a scheme was in their best interests.
    
"What we need is an open discussion and a national debate where everyone can give their views. This is too important an issue to benefit only certain special interests at the expense of the people," he said in a statement issued here.
    
Chang said he was unsure if it was a good scheme since he did not have enough information but preliminary reports suggest it was akin to socialized medicine modelled on the United Kingdom's National Health Service.
    
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said recently that the proposal had yet to be finalised.
    
“Nothing is final, even the 10 per cent salary (mandatory contribution) is a proposal... It hasn’t come to the policy stage yet,” Liow had said.
    

- Bernama