Just recently, I came across an Oprah episode which featured Michael Moore and other guests talking about getting sick in America, which literally dwells on the plight of Americans who have not had the chance for a better health care insurance and other health benefits. Well, that is America! In the Philippines, talking about health care insurance is outright insanity primarily because we do not have everyone covered. This government has been remiss in providing substantial health care benefits to almost all 87 Million Filipinos. Good if you are a government employee, one can get their Philippine Health Insurance (PhilHealth) cards to cover them but among those living within the poverty line and those below it, talking about health care insurance is downright hypocrisy because there is none to speak of in the first place. In the Philippines, when one got sick, u either have to wait for loans to pay off your hospital bills and other medical expenses or charge it to PhilHealth.
Charging to Philhealth whatever is needed to be done (for surgery on heart by-pass, curative care for diabetics, stroke ailments that needs maintenance and others) is impossible. What have been covered by Philhealth so far are hospitalization and the medicines within a certain period of time which is usually about confinement in hospitals. I heard that Philhealth does not even cover substantial claims on cancer treatment, chemotherapy, heart by-pass, heart angiogram, bone marrow transplant, open heart surgery and many others. In this, the patient has to shell out funds for such expensive operations. In the Philippines, we do not talk about health care insurance because we do not have one. We usually talk about how much the cost and where did we borrow the money for it. Very unfortunate. Even those who can afford it, they are not fully covered by a comprehensive health insurance.
Even among insurance companies doing business in the Philippines, one can seldom see an insurance company selling varied products that substantially cover insurance claims on the aforementioned surgeries. And what makes matter worse; even big time hospitals will not conduct surgery without a substantial down payment. Being confined for ordinary sickness that is regularly covered by PhilHealth is totally different when one is requiring surgery to save life. When my mother was amputated due to diabetes, we have to shell out the money prior to the surgery as required by the hospital we went to in Cebu City. We do not have health care insurance, so we have to borrow. Until now, we have to pay off the loan because my mother is not covered by any health care insurance. When I broached the idea that my mother’s medical expenses and hospitalization costs be shouldered by either my brother’s or my Philhealth card, they told me she can not be covered because has not reached 60 years old. With that in mind, getting sick in the Philippines means a slow and painful death.
In most cases too, even asking ordinary Filipinos everywhere if they have health care insurance, they will most likely answer you with a no. What we usually patronize is life insurance which does not automatically cover health care. It can substantially cover accidents and its attendant expense but not so much about recuperative care. Having surgeries to save life is one thing, buying maintenance medicines afterwards is another and the most expensive is the recuperative maintenance aspect. On the average, Filipino patients have to spend around 850-1500 per day of maintenance right after a stroke, diabetes or more when it cancer. Where will we get funds for these? We borrow from loan sharks. Where is our government? Nowhere to be seen. What have they done? Nothing.
It is about time that our government should invest on individual health care insurance coverage beyond what PhilHealth can offer us. What we need actually is an insurance that can guarantee us that by the moment we need it to recuperate from sickness caused directly or indirectly from the work or nature of work that we do, we can claim for insurance benefits and insurance companies will willingly pay for our recuperation at a lesser cost. Morality too dictates that insurance companies and government should not be earning profit from sickness and hospitalization of its patients. It is as simple as providing equal access to recuperative health care that our government has been remiss of giving to us. What Philhealth can do is only good for government employees and to those others who can afford but looking at the majority of Filipinos who can not afford, getting sick is insane and suicidal. Insane because we do not know where to get the money to pay off the medical and hospitalization costs, suicidal because nobody cares about it. It’s sad but it is the truth and mostly, the truth is a bitter pill.
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