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CTALK

- CITO BELTRAN

After reading my column "Unholy week to die," one of our regular readers, "Lily," shared a similar story from the past: "I just wish to relate my friend's experience during the first days of COVID. He was taken to the hospital because of suspected COVID, but happily, it turned out it was not.

"He was meant to be discharged on the third or fourth day but the hospital wouldn't allow him to be discharged because he was asked to pay in cash his P300,000 hospital bill.

"There was no way he could get the cash because everything was on a lockdown and obviously, not many have this amount of cash in their house. He was told if he had a car to use it as a collateral for a loan. A check or promissory note was not good enough.

"Because it took a bit of time to get hold of the cash, i.e., borrowing from relatives who had the cash in their house with that amount, he was detained an extra day to come up with CASH. An extra day of course cost him a few more thousands.

"My friend is well off, can easily afford to pay the bill, but everything was closed. His illness was not COVID, nothing serious, but it cost him P100,000 a day."

Philippine Red Cross chairman Richard "Dick" Gordon also called me to express his condolences and to express his agreement to the solutions I shared.

He also shared an ongoing program of the Philippine Red Cross that starts out as a membership program with benefits. Tito Dick enthusiastically explained that the membership was very affordable in comparison to the benefits.