The cost of health

As we emerge slowly and cautiously from the pandemic, we hopefully take with us the hard-earned lessons we learned these past two years. One of them, which I think is a lesson many of us already knew but was just hammered home during the health crisis, is that the cost of healthcare is no laughing matter. Even before COVID-19, healthcare in the Philippines was costly, and with the current state of the economy and livelihood, I’m sure it’s even more inaccessible now.

One of the main concerns citizens have is access to healthcare support or universal healthcare. This could be in the form of accessible health services or even medicine support, or free medicines. While this is something governments should prioritize, comprehensive universal healthcare seems to continue to be elusive in so many countries.

Free medicine is not something even the wealthiest countries can afford, much less countries that are struggling. What happens typically is that nations have varying degrees of public healthcare. Some countries have extensive and comprehensive programs covering various medical services and even surgeries for all income classes. Other nations, on the flip side – like the Philippines, may only offer coverage to the poorest citizens.

While it’s understandable to offer help to those in marginalized communities, that leaves the middle class widely unprotected. Even with basic HMO and insurance, the coverage provided is very minimal, and that’s a significant problem for the middle working class because healthcare is not affordable. One illness can easily break a family – even one that has diligently saved for a rainy day.

To broaden healthcare in the Philippines, the Universal Health Care Act or RA 11223 was signed in 2019, one year before COVID-19 hit. The goal was to expand coverage for more Filipinos. However, funding was an issue from the get-go and the plan was to roll the program out slowly and staggered over time. Needless to say, when the pandemic hit, things changed once again. With the government’s debt hanging over our heads, the full implementation may take longer – if at all.

This leaves us back at the beginning – worrying about the rising cost of getting sick. Of course, trying to stay healthy and well is a precaution, but it’s not enough. People get sick – it happens. Sometimes no amount of taking care can keep an illness at bay and there should be ways to provide help.

If universal healthcare can’t be provided to everyone, another step to consider is to try to keep the costs of medicines reasonable. This is something even first-world countries are struggling to do, but in the Philippines, it’s very worrisome.

While some medication is more accessible here than abroad, quite a few vital medications have a retail price higher than in the United States. Open discussions should be had with pharmaceutical companies about the cost of medicines and how the government can support the local industry to make their life-saving products more accessible to more Filipinos. Whether it’s partnerships, research grants, tax breaks or the like - if we can find a way to keep costs down, that will already be a big help.

Before COVID-19, several big pharma companies had accessibility programs for their medication that gave socialized discounts based on a patient’s situation and income. This helped a little, although many of them were stopped or paused during the pandemic. The government and pharma companies should look into this again and find more proactive ways – grants, research funding, etc. – to make medicine production more efficient so that the final output is available to more Filipinos from all income levels.

At the same time, health should be given more importance all around. The pandemic taught us how important it is to stay healthy, which includes not just physical health, but also mental health. Studies have shown that mentally healthy people can also physically stay healthy. The pandemic showed us just how important mental health is, and we can no longer ignore this aspect of overall wellbeing.

Hopefully, more mental health programs and services will be created and available to more Filipinos. I think we can all benefit from investing in our mental wellness. If we focus on this collectively, we’ll be stronger and more capable of facing the ongoing challenge of navigating the new normal.

Once again, if we can, stay home. Many people were able to keep sickness at bay simply by staying in. A hybrid work system should definitely be explored for companies that can still work remotely. Not only can companies keep employees safe, but they can also shield them from the insanely high price of transportation. Companies that do this are also helping keep crowds smaller whenever and wherever possible.

After all, while we have eased restrictions considerably, it doesn’t mean we aren’t still in a pandemic. People are still getting sick, and the virus is still spreading. We should still be careful because even though things are improving, no one wants to be the unfortunate statistic. As we all know, hospitalization is expensive.

So we all have to be aware and do our part. At the end of the day, healthcare is an essential basic service that governments should provide for the citizens. It may not economically be possible to have universal comprehensive coverage for all or free medicine, but there are indeed steps that can be taken to improve the healthcare and wellbeing landscape in the country. Hopefully, these past two years have hammered home the point that health is wealth, and we all need to do our part to safeguard it.