Another cry for help!

It feels strange to be at one hospital to another these past few days.  Last time, I had the sad experience of being at Vicente Sotto Memorial Hospital where I noted the poor state of health care and its dire need for attention.  Now I am in Makati Medical Center where the opposite conditions show furthermore how badly we need a stable and secure health care service for the general citizenry of our country.

Although our statistics show a slight dip in the figures of poverty incidence, we can still safely say the gap of 70-30 where 70% are within to below the poverty threshold and 30% are among those who are comfortable to rich have remained.

In a survey published in the Philippine Health System Review, Vol. 1, No, 2 of 2011, it was reported that private providers of health care are preferred than our public hospitals because they are perceived to offer better quality health care. 

If we relate this economic indicator to that of the need for health services we may be depressed to see that a majority cannot afford medical care.  It is hard to be old and poor in our country, for to be old with no savings or health care is like a slow death in itself.

Health services that are being offered by private institutions have their own caps.  Take for instance the medical insurances of the private sector.  No one offers a health insurance that would cover the “after employment state.”   And some do not include the elderly or if they do, the premiums are so exorbitant you could have a heart attack.

Our PhilHealth system may cover a certain amount but could not take on the ailing elderly or the health needs of the middle income earners to poverty level patients.

In order to address the gap, the government has tried to provide  basic health services at the barangay level for free.  We can take pride in the fact that we have highly skilled and professional medical personnel in our hospitals.  Both public and private.However not all front liners in the barangays are medically educated or trained. And these workers are the first hand, frontline service providers for basic health needs in the community.

Notably, with the low incentive scheme of compensating our health workers, some are not even professionals and it would be a feather in the cap of the barangay officials to already have barangay health workers and nutrition scholars who are equipped with paramedical skills.

I know that wishing for health services as sophisticated as those in first world countries like the United Kingdom, the United States and even Norway, would be too much to ask too soon.  But it can be achieved in time in one step, at a determined step at a time.

Honestly, I don’t mind paying taxes that would secure our future.  In the mentioned countries their taxes reach as high as 50% of their income but it is all translated into public service.  Roads are good, urban housing and wide space planning for urban and countryside development is well done and implemented.  Water sustainability is ensured along with the safety nets for climate change repercussions.  Crisis management systems are in place and emergency response units are ready.  Trade and investments become attractive, and bring in more income to pursue more development.

If high taxes would entail my not having to get any medical insurance, or pension plans and whatever security blankets I need to layer because government can offer us the same quality care,  I think many of us would agree that it would be all right.

Be it timely that we are electing new legislators and leaders of the land.  I will continue to sound my call for still better reforms and the strengthening of health care programs and services in our country.  Hopefully someone will pick up this cry for help.