Sky-high costs of swab tests: more affordable, accessible swab testing needed

Suffering from a fever and a sore throat for the second straight day last Oct. 22, I searched for nearby COVID-19 testing centers online. I contacted a particular diagnostic center in Quezon City where the swab test rates (then) were P4,500 and P10,500 for results released in two to three days (regular service) and within 24 hours (express service), respectively. Even then, I felt that P10,500 was exorbitant.

Personal, familial, and professional factors considered, I needed to know my result pronto, so I opted for that center’s express service that afternoon. I would have wanted to search further or ask around for health facilities with more affordable tests, but I was just too weak and feverish to do so. The next morning, I checked the result online. Thank God I was negative.

My fever and sore throat, which subsided after a week but developed into coughing, was diagnosed later on by my pulmonologist as an upper respiratory tract infection. Due to my coughing while dubbing last Nov. 6, I was requested by the studio’s management to take another swab test immediately so that, among other things, they could decide if my Nov. 9 session would push through or not depending on the finding. I said that I would comply for everyone’s peace of mind, but pointed out how much my swab test cost me just 15 days prior. “Masakit sa bulsa,” I said. It was past 2:30 p.m. by then, and as they needed to know the result before that forthcoming Monday, I rode a taxi to the same diagnostic center before it closed at 4:30 p.m.

Upon phoning them to have myself pre-registered, I was told that the express rate had been reduced to P8,000 (I can’t recall the discounted amount for the regular service). It offered little consolation as it was still expensive. So, I arrived there and got swabbed, after which I lamented having spent P18,500 in total on two swab tests only within 15 days. The result, available online the next morning, was thankfully negative again.

Family, friends, colleagues, and other people I talked to agreed that that diagnostic center’s express service was way too high. A taxi driver who drove me to work even said, “Naku, Sir, titiisin ko na lang [the symptoms] kaysa gumastos ng ganon kalaki.”

Only recently, I discovered from a neighbor that there were other COVID-19 centers nearby with much cheaper fees, and learned from some people that astronomical amounts were also being charged elsewhere, even as high as P13,000.

I get the concept of “express service,” and how business entities take advantage of this to jack up the prices of certain products and services. But come on! P8,000? P10,500? P13,000? MORE?

I appeal to all health facilities and hospitals to be more compassionate, as money is hard to come by for so many (myself included) during this pandemic.

Here’s hoping the recent signing of Executive Order No. 118, which aims to put a price cap on the cost of COVID-19 test kits, results in more affordable and accessible swab testing everywhere as many Filipinos continue to have themselves tested, with the coronavirus still looming over us all.

Claude Lucas C. Despabiladeras,
claudelucasdespa@gmail.com