Feature Article
By Manny C. Dela Cruz
MOST Filipinos say that being healthy is a wealth and many other people have become saying like this that good health is a treasure also. That’s why, we try our best not to get any disease, but we can’t avoid getting sick especially if our immune system ease off.
So there is another remark that has been added to the table of Filipino proverbs. This is the phrase “don’t get sick”, although this clause is far from reality. In the field of journalism, journalists must be physically strong to fulfill their sworn duty and that’s what it should be.
On the other hand, the condition of our unfortunate fellow Filipinos is different, particularly the poor, especially if the stage of illness comes to them. That’s where the big financial need comes so the said corresponds to the poor Filipinos
Here in the Philippines, we cannot say that our country’s health care system is good or meet the needs of the people, specifically the indigent persons.
The main problem of public hospitals anywhere in our country is limited resources, lack of medical equipments, medicines and many others.
Every day that God has made, people with various illnesses flood public hospitals. Unfortunately, not all sick people who come to the hospital are given immediate relief. If the patient’s illness is not an emergency, it is not easy for them to be admitted due to the lack of hospital beds
What aid is our government able to help our countrymen who need medical services? There is PhilHealth, the government agency that helps the sick confined in private and public hospitals.
In a recent privilege speech in the House of the Representatives by Agri-Party List Representative Wilbert T. Lee, the lawmaker said that every year the state funds PhilHealth with one hundred billion pesos per year and currently has 446 billion pesos of PhilHealth money deposited in the bank and invested in various institutions, according to Lee.
PhilHealth also has the benefit of helping patients confined to different hospitals because under the existing Universal Health Care system in the Philippines, all Filipinos are automatically members of the said health insurance. But few families of patients confined to private hospitals are still complaining, particularly the patients who are paying members of PhilHealth because it is said that PhilHealth only pays a small percentage of their hospital bills.
If PhilHealth has a lot of money, it should only be able to sustain the medical needs of the Filipino people. What is the use of the Universal Health Care Law of our country if this law is not implemented properly. You know, the problem that is constantly heard from the relatives of patients confined in public hospitals is the medicines, and many others.
The doctors who see the patients only give prescriptions to the patients’ relatives. The problem is that the poor relatives of the patients cannot buy the medicine prescribed by the doctor because there is no money to buy the equipment, so the hospital attendants themselves instruct the relatives of the patients to go to their mayor’s office or governor’s office to request financial assistance to buy necessary medicine for their sick relatives.
Relatives of patients have had many bad experiences in public hospitals due to many shortages. So it’s no wonder why there are poor families who take their sick relatives to private hospitals because of the lack of medical services in public hospitals.
So what should be done is that Congress give more funding to the Department of Health. Even if it is said that the management of public hospitals is under the local government due to devolution, the national government also needs to help the public and regional hospitals so that the majority of Filipinos who need medical services will not suffer. (UnliNews Online)
