EDITORIAL — Our healthcare system needs a lot of fixing

The issue about state insurer PhilHealth refusing to give the benefits of a patient who died because he had not been admitted for 24 hours in the hospital isn’t going away anytime soon.

However, this very same case is calling to attention another issue entirely; the demand of a hospital for a cash deposit before they can admit or administer treatment to a patient.

The patient, who was suffering from a brain hematoma, had been refused treatment in the first hospital his family took him to because it allegedly demanded a ?1 million deposit, something they couldn’t afford.

The author of the Universal Healthcare Law, Senator JV Ejercito, has urged authorities to look into the alleged requirement of the deposit, which he said may violate Republic Act No. 10932, or the Anti-Hospital Deposit Law, which prohibits hospitals from delaying treatment in emergency cases due to financial incapacity.

He further said that if hospitals aren’t properly implementing PhilHealth policies, the state insurer has the authority to penalize these with fines and suspension of accreditation.

But then again, many hospitals are so powerful that the law many not apply to them.

Also but then again, PhilHealth can’t exactly be relied on to look after the welfare of its very members. Just look at the issue it’s dealing with right now.

This one case alone shows that our healthcare system obviously needs a lot of fixing. Hospitals shouldn’t demand too much too soon. PhilHealth should act like the state insurer it’s supposed to be.

Those who live in the Philippines know that healthcare can become crazy expensive.

Even those who are earning well enough for themselves or their family are just one medical emergency away from becoming broke, poor, or hopelessly indebted; imagine the plight of those families or individuals barely able to make ends meet when suddenly faced with such a situation.

Now it would seem that only millionaires can afford to get treated for brain hematoma.

We understand that in the end hospitals are businesses too; they must be able to make a profit to continue operating. But making a profit shouldn’t take priority over treating people.

Unless profit is their bigger priority after all.