What would you wish for?

A friend asked me if I knew an LGU that has a wish list or pending project where all the studies and paperwork have been done and simply needed a funding source.

I said I didn’t know of any, but I knew something that he and his friends can get into – help thousands of Filipinos per area and eventually give a guaranteed ROI or return on investment.

As an example, I pointed out the thousands of dialysis centers that have popped up like mushrooms all over the Philippines. There was a time when dialysis outside a hospital was illegal, if not unimaginable.

Then there are all the small two-room clinics and laboratory centers in busy residential areas. In Barrio Kapitolyo, there are four medical laboratory services within 50 to 500 meters of each other, while seven pharmacies and drug stores are within walking distance of each other.

Why not invest in small or medium size hospital facilities that can provide affordable rooms and care for paying clients instead of their having to pay “ransom” in a big private hospital in order to be released when they get well.

Many middle-class Filipinos want to, or need to, migrate to public hospitals, but the Philippines has a severe shortage of mid-price hospitals that have available rooms. Government hospitals have enough modern equipment in order to run tests but not enough rooms.

The doctors in public hospitals are generally on the same level of expertise and often are the same doctors you see in private hospitals, but public hospitals simply do not have enough beds or rooms.

Getting hospitalized in the Philippines is like booking a trip on a commercial airline. Airlines have categorized passenger accommodation or sections as First Class, Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy.

The same can now be said about hospitals and health care in the Philippines. The people who go to private hospitals are generally the rich or A&B class or the unfortunate folks who were rushed to the nearest but most expensive private hospital.

From what I’ve learned, the separation between First Class and Business Class hospitalization is if you get the presidential suite, the executive suite versus a regular suite or a private room.

But the decision is not entirely yours to make. I know of several instances when hospitals will size you up, who your attending physicians are or what your family name and address is.

From there they sell you the lame claim, “We currently don’t have any regular rooms available, but we could put you in a suite or even the executive suite.”

Between desperation and ego, I know of people who agreed, thinking they’re only spending more on the room but not realizing that those rooms come with a different set of charges or higher costs. They call it “socialized.”

The problem is many patients have no idea about rates, charges and doctors’ fees. All of this should be made known to patients at the Admitting section before admission.

Between prices in the sky and purgatory in the wards, there are only four known GOCC or government-owned and -controlled corporation hospitals: Heart Center, National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI), Lung Center of the Philippines and Philippine Children’s Medical Center or PCMC.

There was a time when people opted to go to the Heart Center rather than the well known private hospitals because PHC was affordable. But it seems those days are long gone. If a patient can’t produce the hundreds of thousands, even a couple million, of pesos, they have to go elsewhere.

But where? What some doctors in private hospitals have reportedly been doing is conducting expensive procedures or surgery at a public hospital where they are “consulting.” In other words, two hospitals for one disease!

Even for medicines, why do patients have to buy the medicines at pharmacies outside of the hospital? The Philippine government has purchasing power by buying in bulk and dictating volume prices.

What is sick (no pun intended) is that everybody – beginning from the President, VP, the executive secretary, all senators and every member of Congress – is well aware of the shortage that has existed since the day they were born, and the problem is getting worse.

There are even a couple of promising senators who made promises to allocate funds to government hospitals but never came back after the photo ops!

People may get medical attention in private hospitals, but they go home with a financial disaster. The government and the legislative branch have not investigated, much less regulated, the uncontrolled pricing of private hospitals.

Patients get stuck in hospitals because the billing section still have to find out how much every attending physician is charging for professional fees, depending on how charitable or desperate the doctor is.

If government can regulate airlines, bus and jeepney fares, pork and beef, why can’t they regulate and require transparency of professional fees? Why can’t professional fees for consultations be visibly listed in doctors’ offices so the patient does not face bill shock?

The BIR should revive the policy of allowing taxpayers to claim a small percentage of their surgery or hospital bill as tax deductions. That way, BIR can use receipts to follow the money.

Let’s pray together for more hospitals and make it an election issue. God bless.