Requirement or ‘excuse?’

A young factory worker named Jona recently reached out to me to ask for help. She was due for a biopsy to determine if the lump in her breast was a benign growth or a cancerous tumor. She explained that because she worked in a factory, she had medical insurance that would pay for the procedure but not for the RT-PCR test that was required by the hospital. Being a daily wage earner and daughter of a single parent security guard, she had no way of raising the P3,300 being charged by the hospital. Having known Jona as a young girl, I was more concerned that she had the biopsy as soon as possible than debating the cost of the RT-PCR test. We gave her the cash and THANK GOD, the test came out as benign.

With catastrophe averted, I now ask the question, should private hospitals continue or be allowed to require RT-PCR tests, given the major decrease in COVID cases if the patient is fully vaccinated and underwent the booster shot and has no manifestation of illness or symptom? Most airports are already doing away with the RT-PCR but in the Philippines, hospitals carry on making money even from the poor! Is this mandated by the WHO or the Philippine Medical Association or is “the need for safety protocol” just an unchallenged excuse to make money? Why not simply require the cheaper Anti-Gen testing that is less than half the price of RT-PCR tests? Why is the RT-PCR test not automatically covered by PhilHealth in the case of Jona, whose health care provider works with a private hospital?

Last but not the least, knowing that Jona comes from an indigent family, shouldn’t such charges be waived or passed on by the hospital to PhilHealth so that poor people don’t go into a panic, looking where to beg, steal or borrow money while experiencing severe anxiety over a potential cancer concern? People from PhilHealth keep talking about full coverage and “No Balance Billing” but time and again I have been approached by people who don’t understand what rights or privileges they have as “members.” Even doctors who hold clinics in hospitals don’t take the time to explain such benefits to their patients.

It may be that the policy is still a carry-over because some areas are still under Alert Level 2, but we know that in many areas alert levels have nothing to do with the existing number of COVID cases but more with poor or below ideal vaccination scores of the general population and of the senior citizens in the area. But people like Jona end up being collateral damage due to low statistics! Last but not the least, it might be well worth considering issuing “Indigent Status” cards to poor families or individuals as a means of immediately identifying them and giving them priority in services and/or exemptions. I know that the Commission on Higher Education or CHED has such a mechanism where they give assistance or scholarship to “Indigent Students.” By giving poor people such a card, we can separate them from the flock or the queue in hospitals and relieve them from becoming point of sale and profit by such establishments.

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I don’t really know how this thing works but I heard of reports last week about mayors and local government officials unilaterally declaring bans on poultry products coming from Luzon because of an avian pest or bird flu outbreak. Ironically, the Bureau of Animal Industry through its director Dr. Reildrin Morales has already addressed the problem, which initially affected ducks and quails but not poultry until an avian flu outbreak was recently reported in a fighting cock farm. In all cases the BAI acted swiftly and culled and disposed of all the contaminated flocks as well as imposed containment procedures.

Speaking from experience as well as the many years I have coordinated with BMeg Feeds and San Miguel Animal Health Products as a hog raising enthusiast, free range and gamefowl backyard producer and volunteer lecturer, we have time and again given lectures and training to different livestock farmers about the importance of vaccination for poultry, hogs and dogs. There is no getting away from it, and vaccination is what prevents the contamination, spread and resulting destruction of poultry farms, duck farms or piggeries or unnecessary deaths of your cute puppies. God bless the day we finally have a tested vaccine for ASF because again, that is the only way we beat what depopulated the hog industry by approximately 40 percent if not more.

Having said this, I feel that there should be a strict policy, if not law, that requires all LGUs, all agricultural health officers or veterinarians as well as sellers and raisers of livestock and livestock supplies to implement mandatory vaccination programs for any and all livestock. This is our first defense against highly transmissible diseases such as Parvo for dogs and pigs, or avian or bird flu in poultry and birds. We have been too lax regarding the entry of livestock and poultry into the country and as a result we now have diseases that never used to exist in the Philippines.

Thousands of Filipinos are also ignorant if not dangerously illiterate about the proper care and protection of livestock. We always want the best breeds of fur or fowl but not all go to veterinarians to protect their pets or stock. And when there is an outbreak, local officials go into panic mode either to protect local farms and protect local business interests. When ASF broke out, a handful of local officials in the Visayas implemented bans and roadblocks not only in defense of ASF but also to corner the regional market, given they owned big piggeries on the side.

Only the Department of Agriculture should have the authority to declare bans, not mayors or governors.