Pablo Santos spends four hours each session at a stand-alone hemodialysis center in Mandaluyong City thrice weekly.
The 62-year-old former taxi driver had been tied to a dialysis machine for nearly four years when his kidneys failed in late 2020.
He was suffering from type 2 diabetes, and his blood pressure was elevated, around 150/90.
When his laboratory results came in November 2020, he was shocked.
His creatine level was 1,110, and his hemoglobin count was 88. That would explain the shortness of his breathing, and he had to walk around with a portable oxygen tank. His kidneys are functioning at less than 12 percent.
More than a year later, his condition improved. The inflammation on his legs, or edema, was gone. He lost 15 kilos and now weighs 66 kilos.
However, the dialysis procedure is costly. He would shell out roughly 2,500 pesos every session, 7,500 pesos a week, or 30,000 pesos monthly.
Some stand-alone dialysis centers offer cheaper procedures, but most indigent patients get almost free treatment through GLs or guarantee letters.
Some government agencies, lawmakers, and local government officials also give GLs to hospitals and dialysis centers to pay for a patient’s treatment.
Even the Office of the President and Vice President regularly distribute cash to needy patients, from 1,000 pesos to 8,000 pesos every month or quarter.
Here’s the catch. One would go to an office in Malacañang or to the OVP as early as 3 am to register and get the cash.
Oh, there is also a cut off period or if the required number of people begging for help in a day is already filled up.
It’s the same procedure when you queue for medical assistance at the local congressman’s or mayor’s office.
Sometimes, some wealthy city or municipal council members also distribute GLs.
Before Sen. Bong Go opened the “Malasakit Centers” nationwide, the PCSO, Pagcor and the DSWD also gave GLs to indigent patients.
It’s now centralized, helping Bong Go get re-elected to another six-year term in the Senate next year.
Politicians, from the national to local governments, have been politicizing the country’s health system through the GLs.
During elections, GLs become useful to help politicians get elected to positions.
In Canada and some advanced European countries, which are welfare states, poor people will not endure long lines to obtain GLs.
Health care services are 100 percent free. The people do not even pay for the medicines prescribed by doctors.
Myrna Reyes gets her dialysis solution every week, delivered to her home without paying a single dollar.
The Philippines has enacted a universal health care law which would improve the health care services in the country.
In July, the government mandated its health insurance system, PhilHealth, to pay the 4,000 pesos per dialysis session, ensuring free treatment for millions of dialysis patients.
It includes the treatment, the dialyzer canister, the laboratory fees, and the injection for hemoglobin count.
Health Secretary Ted Herbosa raised the Philhealth subsidy to 6,500 pesos per session in September.
It was a great relief for Pablo Santos and other poor dialysis patients, but wealthier patients still pay a fortune at private hospitals.
Increasing Philhealth’s subsidies, however, did not do away with the GL mentality among poor Filipinos.
Medications for dialysis patients are expensive. Pablo Santos has to spend 10,000 pesos for a cocktail of tablets and capsules to regulate blood pressure, phosporous, calcium, potassium, sodium, and many more.
One of Rodrigo Duterte’s legacies was to lower the maintenance medicines for poor. Senior citizens get additional discounts.
The Philippine government has to do more to improve health care.
For instance, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto should forget to take 90 billion pesos from Philhealth and transfer it to the Maharlika Funds. It already got 20 billion pesos.
Suppose all the 90 billion pesos from Philhealth pays for treatment and medicines for severe diseases.
In that case, it will go a long way instead of infrastructure investments that guarantee no return.
It could also end the vicious cycle of mendicancy. No one will wake up early in the morning to cue to get a few thousand pesos and a guarantee letter.
Pablo Santos deserves some dignity. Let’s stop turning him into a beggar. He is already suffering from his lingering disease. It’s time to give him some comfort and compassion.
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