When immigrants get sick in the Philippines

One worry I have when I come home to Cebu is the possibility of getting sick. Being a nurse who formerly worked at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, I know fully well how skillful and smart our medical professionals are, and how advanced our hospitals have become in our city. What I am more apprehensive about is how expensive it could get to be sick here in the Philippines especially when immigrants, more often than not, do not have health insurance coverage while vacationing here. In almost all cases when an emergency happens, we pay for our own medical expenses with no assurance that our own US-based insurance provider will reimburse us. I remember talking to a daughter of an elderly US citizen admitted in one of the hospitals in Cebu. She was complaining that it cost them almost P200,000 for a mere leg infection.

Another heartbreaking incident I know happened to a friend of mine while vacationing in Manila. She and her son went grocery shopping when suddenly her son suffered an acute allergy attack. His airways constricted so much to the point that he stopped breathing. In one of the biggest malls in the Philippines, there was no life-saving Epi-Pen and there were no emergency kits conspicuously stationed nearby. Worse, at that time, there was no 911 to call. My friend took her son to the hospital by herself using a regular taxicab! Sadly, he died before they could reach the nearest emergency room.

Situations like these should help us be prepared before we travel outside the US. We should call our health insurer here in the US to make sure if we are covered and how we can contact them in case of medical emergencies abroad. We should also inform our banks to increase our maximum amount of daily withdrawals so we have enough money to pay for unforeseen expenses. It would be a good idea to visit our primary doctor in order to be vaccinated, stock up on maintenance medications. For the young children, pregnant and elderly, make sure you are medically cleared to travel. If you have a chronic illness it is wise to have a written summary of your condition, list of medications and other pertinent information that could be helpful to the local medical facility. Investigate if there are available health insurers in the Philippines that offer short term and emergency-only coverage. If ever you were admitted or seen by a doctor here, make sure you bring all your medical records, laboratory results, prescriptions, etc. so that your US-based doctor has baseline information for further follow-up. When you feel ill once you are back in the US, make sure you alert your doctor that you were in the Philippines. You may have contracted a tropical infection that US-trained medical professionals are not familiar with.

Here in the Philippines, I hope a law or ordinance would be passed (if there is none), which makes it mandatory for all establishments, schools, places of worship, malls, banks, groceries, government offices, and other businesses serving the general public, to have readily available lifesaving devices.