Blind to plight of the poor
The pro-RH bill legislators are simply blind to the plight of millions of poor Filipinos who cannot afford the high cost of health services and medicines. They want to move heaven and hell for the passage of a “bill” which allocates billions of pesos for contraceptives rather than for basic needs: better hospital and health care services and more PhilHealth benefits.
I am 72 years old and I don’t go to doctors or hospitals for consultation because, like many other ordinary Filipinos, I dread hospital and doctors’ “bills.” Here’s my personal experience: Only recently, I accidentally cut my left forefinger. I had to be rushed to the nearest private hospital where I was confined for one day. (I stayed in the emergency room from about 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. because I could not be admitted until I paid the required P20,000 deposit).
My total gross hospital bill: P28,122. Less PhilHealth benefit (P7,080) and senior citizen’s discount privilege (P5,202), the net hospital bill was P15,840. Plus the doctors’ bills (P20,000 and P12,500), and the total bill amounted to P48,340. I almost fell off my bed. This experience has prompted me to write this letter to inform the public and, in particular, the legislators that the claim that the Reproductive Health bill will reduce the prevalence of fatal, high-risk diseases and pregnancies is not true. The high risk is the high cost of health care. Because of the high cost of health care poor, cash-strapped sick Juan de la Cruz would never go to any doctor at all, or would rather go to a quack doctor, for check-up—thus risking serious consequences which could include death.
Millions of Filipinos suffer from ill-health simply because of the fear of a doctor’s bill or a hospital bill, aside from not being able to afford the high cost of medicines and health care insurances. The best thing for congressmen to legislate is to give the poor, the sick, the elderly and the disabled access to free basic health care and medicines. Not to free contraceptives!
—OSMUND C. ORLANES,
