Saint Christopher de Kalusugan

In order to become a saint, one of the requirements is a recorded, verifiable miracle attributed to the person by an individual or several people, who experienced miraculous healing or divine intervention after praying or petitioning a “holy” or godly individual who has expired and been dead for at least two years.

The miracle or divine intervention has to be recorded, reported, endorsed, investigated, scientifically and spiritually confirmed and then the potential sainthood goes through the formal process.

In recent history, society and media have grown impatient with the structured and prolonged processes, so they sped things up in the case of Mother Teresa of Calcutta by dubbing her the living saint long before she passed on. 

Sadly, church and mankind have made a life of suffering and death as requirements for sainthood, as if the greater one’s pain, the greater good one generates. This reminds me of the obituaries and platitudes that come too late for the dead and buried. We acknowledge all their contributions only when they are dead and gone.

While mulling over the state of public health in the Philippines, I realized that there are many individuals who regularly do good, perform “miracles” or help heal the poor and the downtrodden. Some more than others. Unfortunately, we are unable to appreciate them because they have a position, a title or they represent a business.

Unknown or “unrealized” by many Filipinos is that there is such an individual that many poor Filipinos turn to, call upon or consider as a source of “miracles,” especially for hospitalization and medicines. Many Filipinos actually benefit from the work he has done but don’t even realize it and often never actually see the man.

A number of health workers and public hospital administrators I have worked with refer to him as the patron saint of public health and hospitals and refer to him as St. Christopher de Kalusugan a.k.a Senator Christopher “Bong” Go.

While many members of Congress and the Senate do extend help for medical assistance, these are usually extended to constituents or in the form of “endorsement letters.” Senator Go, on the other hand, set up the Malasakit Centers and many more. 

The project managed to overcome hiccups in the beginning and was soon welcomed as a legitimate service that helped poor, illiterate, intimidated patients to navigate their way through hospitals, consultancies, treatments and even funding.

 Some of the administrators and specialist physicians I met during conventions where I was the emcee also spoke highly of Senator Go for helping facilitate project funding for equipment and the like. The last time I literally bumped into Saint Christopher de Kalusugan was at the Philippine Heart Center where he was seeking medical information, thereby showing his trust and confidence in the PHC.

 Last week, I learned that Senator Bong Go has called for an investigation regarding the fund transfers of unused funds of PhilHealth to the Maharlika Fund. More importantly, Senator Go focused on why the PhilHealth even has unused funds considering the thousands of Filipinos who can’t afford to pay hospital bills.

This hit home for me since I recently wrote about a guy I know from Batangas who went to the Heart Center for angioplasty but ended up going back home untreated because the total bill would be P800,000.

A few days ago, a widow frantically reached out to me after her son had seizures and was rushed to a nearby private hospital in Tanauan City, Batangas. She was literally begging everybody she knew for any amount of money because she was just a store clerk, and the hospital bill was projected to be P100,000-plus.

People would say, “why go to a private hospital?” Well, most provincial hospitals are way outside the city or urbanized areas, require an ambulance or some form of transport and if you have a medical crisis past 11 p.m., finding help and transport are not as easy as in Metro Manila.

Many provincial hospitals are shared facilities or reference hospitals for other provinces, which means that every poor person in your province has to share that hospital with many poor persons coming from about three to four more provinces. In addition, many of the doctors are not around during the witching hour. So, when I heard that Senator Bong Go will be calling for an investigation of PhilHealth, I said “Way to GO!” I hope that Senator Bong Go would also investigate just how independent and professionally managed PhilHealth is, considering that the head of agency for many administrations has been a political appointee.

The PhilHealth, in my opinion, should be member-centric, have complete independence from Malacañang, DOF or politicians in general and its funds untouchable. 

In his statement, Senator Bong Go also touched on member benefits and so I humbly petition St. Christopher de Kalusugan to investigate the equality or fairness of PhilHealth benefits. There are so many government benefits being made available ONLY to the poorest of the poor or to seniors and PWDs. All that is good, BUT what about members who contribute to the fund?

What about high professional fees that are not covered by PhilHealth? Many HMOs and insurance groups pre-negotiate with doctors and specialists. Why not PhilHealth? 

The PhilHealth should be required to renovate its program so that people don’t have a second heart attack because their doctor hit them with a bill that an insurance system can negotiate. Last but not the least, let’s not forget the dental care packages that were conveniently forgotten!

Let us all give thanks to St. Christopher de Kalusugan.