“Hay Salamat!” exclaimed Pinky (not her true name) after hearing the words, “Good morning ma’am? Unsay among ikatabang nimo mam?” from the other side of the line. Pinky was calling the numbers she chanced upon while browsing a social media platform that offers free online consultation.
When our doctors and health experts tell us that prevention is better than cure, they mean it. While others might think they would only lead us to getting health insurance policies or the like, we are left to doubt it.
It is always convenient to begin with statistics and earth-shattering number of magnitude of earthquakes in this previous months. For this column, and for this topic, however, let’s do it in another way.
Last August, the Department of Health (DOH) released a statement that from being a polio-free country, the Philippines is now at high-risk for polio virus transmission. Until last month, the said office already declared a polio epidemic.
Dengue cases in the Philippines had already risen to more than 229,736, and according to the Department of Health (DOH) from January 1 to August 17 this year, deaths resulting from Dengue had already hit 958.
According to the 2018 Survey on Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) from April to September 2018 released last April 2019 revealed an estimated 2.3 million OFWs. This also spells a total of 235.9 billion pesos of remittances sent home to the Philippines during the same period.
Can poor Filipino families now rejoice over a new law that promises greater access to Philippine health care?
