Thread by @sejoalzir

Reforming the healthcare system: a thread.

The PhilHealth scandal is proof that copying the West without local social, cultural, and behavioral appropriations is a waste of time, effort, and yes, money. We must have our own indigenous systems, not the purely copied Western ones.

The government should focus on the healthcare infrastructure first before asking the people to contribute.

1) A health center in each barangay that handles emergency and preventive medicine, maternity and birthing, community and public health, and mental illness and addiction.

2) A public general hospital in every legislative district that handles referrals to medical specialists.

3) A system of specialist hospitals that treat all parts of the body and all diseases in each region--heart center, lung center, children's hospital, cancer hospital, etc.

4) Four networks of specialist training hospitals where young doctors can do their training should be created and funded in NCR, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

5) All medical schools should be required to put up urgent care facilities besides their existing training hospitals.

The billing in those hospitals above should be based on a patient's income. There should be an income limit. The rich ones should be referred to private hospitals that have their own private insurance systems. To discourage them, public hospitals should get rid of private rooms.

Doctors should be encouraged to organize themselves and run their own private insurance systems that cater to the rich. Health insurance should be private.

The only thing a poor patient needs is a low-income ID he can get from the barangay hall. A minimal fee should be charged.

The government can also give private hospitals tax breaks. If 10% of their hospital admissions are low-income patients, their corporate tax rate should be lesser.

Private hospitals run by religious orders should be required to admit a certain number of low-income patients.

It's time to create a two-summer or one-year graduate program for nurses to become physician assistants. They will train in emergency medicine, preventive medicine, psychiatry or ob-gyn. They can work in barangay health centers under the supervision of municipal and city doctors.

Part of the healthcare reform should be the salaries of healthcare workers. They should be competitive. They should also enjoy other perks--example, priority admissions in medical courses offered by state colleges and universities. The rationale: they will replace their folks.

Of course, nobody in this incompetent government will read this thread. I guess writing "Dear Future Filipinos", a collection of my reformist commentaries, is imperative. Perhaps the future citizens of my country will be fully evolved and understand my ideas that are ignored.