Lip service vs real medicine

CTALK

- CITO BELTRAN

When it became obvious that there would be no stopping the hearings and Supreme Court inquiry regarding the PhilHealth fund transfers, President Bongbong Marcos issued statements calling his appointees to make sure that PhilHealth continues to deliver on its commitments.

But when compared to the grim reality being experienced by Filipinos fighting ailments, diseases and undergoing surgeries, PBBM's orders end up being nothing more than lip service. It also reveals that PBBM is not well-versed in the many shortcomings of the PhilHealth.

During the recent deliberations of the Supreme Court in Baguio City, Associate Justice Jhosep Lopez shared his personal struggle with cancer and, like several of my friends, he too ended up paying approximately P7 million for the major procedures, not including follow up treatments, etc. PhilHealth only covered P50,000.

Most cancer patients have no choice but to go to very expensive private hospitals where the protocol nowadays is that you are assigned an entire team of specialists to manage and work on your cancer. All that puts you on a very expensive level of treatment that many cannot afford.

The problem is going to a public hospital is more of an act of desperation rather than a logical economic choice. Doctors in public hospitals are probably better trained and have more experience or are the very same doctors available in private hospitals.