What do you do when you find out that you or your loved one has been diagnosed with a critical illness? What if, like me, you also don’t have a medical plan or health insurance? A reality many Filipinos still face today is that the monthly earnings we have are just enough to get by, and insurance can take second priority after daily provisions. Sickness and disease don’t choose who gets them, and for many Filipino families, we are still dependent on our government to provide medical and financial aid.
The Cost of Urgency: Our Search for Affordable Care
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When we found out that my Papa had colon cancer, we knew that we needed to act quickly to prevent the cancer from spreading. We were also very aware that we did not have the financial capacity to bring him to a private hospital. Initially, the first doctor we spoke to gave us a ballpark figure of about P500K to P700K just for the surgery to remove the tumor, not including confinement, medicines, and professional fees. We did our research and finally decided to take my father to Rizal Medical Center in Pasig. Since this is a government hospital, we knew that some fees and medicines would be subsidized. Another government aid I was hopeful for was PhilHealth’s Z Benefit Package. The Z Benefit is supposed to help alleviate the financial burden that comes with critical illnesses such as cancer, chronic kidney diseases, leukemia, and others. Just recently, the benefit claim for some illnesses was also raised to 1.4 million pesos, which is a big help as procedures and tests can rack up high costs very quickly.
The Disappointment
However, claiming this benefit for us was a different story. We thought that this benefit would be available at all accredited hospitals. Since RMC was a government hospital, we assumed that we could claim it there for sure. What the articles we read failed to mention was that you can only claim this benefit in specific accredited hospitals.
When my dad was confined, my first goal was to visit the PhilHealth office in the hospital to process his PhilHealth claim, specifically the Z Benefit. To my surprise and disappointment, I was told that the Z Benefit was not available at RMC. I was confused; I was sure that colon cancer was included in the list of eligible illnesses. My confusion and silence were met with an apologetic response from the staff member behind the glass partition. It was not her fault that the policy didn’t apply in the hospital she was assigned to. There was no point in asking her further, and my rising anxiety didn’t allow me to speak any longer. Suddenly, the financial aid that we had hoped for was no longer an option, and the stress of finding financial support was back.
I researched further online to find out where these accredited hospitals were. By refining my search and adding keywords, I came across the PhilHealth website with the PDF file of the accredited hospitals. I could only hope that this important information had been more easily available earlier, but now I hope that sharing our experience can help others who are facing a health crisis like we did.
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Living Through the Government Hospital Experience
My father finally had his surgery in February this year, six months after the initial diagnosis. Because we chose to go through a government hospital, many of the fees were subsidized, and because of PhilHealth’s No Balance Billing for senior citizens, the final cost was more manageable for our family.
While at the hospital, I would often hear this phrase among patients and their guardians: “Tiyagaan lang talaga dito, pero ‘pag nakapasok ka naman, maayos naman ang serbisyo.” Like us, they also had to wait for days in the Emergency Room before they were even admitted. During our outpatient consultations, we had to line up as early as 7:00 am for a 10:00 am schedule. Waiting and lining up for hours, even days, and sometimes going back and forth have become an unfortunate norm for an average Filipino just trying to get better. One patient who was confined was even worried because being hospitalized meant he couldn’t work, and no work meant no meals or provision for his family in the province. We know it’s difficult and tiring, but we are forced to accept it because it seems like there’s no other way around it.
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Why We Need to Speak Up About Healthcare?
Now that there are investigations and Supreme Court discussions about PhilHealth, its funding, and services, I truly hope this will lead to improvements in the services that every Filipino can receive. I also think that we have to take more active participation in discussions like these. After all, it is our contributions and taxes that they are talking about. I know that there is no perfect healthcare (even first-world healthcare has issues), but we should care where our contributions go and care for the kind of services we get.
