Tuesday, April 24, 2007 Speak out: Health as right By Akbayan Party-list
IN the World Health Organization’s Health Development Report, the Philippines ranked 126th out of 191 countries in terms of over-all level of health. This is hardly surprising – in an era of astonishing complex medical and technological advancement, the country’s health profile is backward. Indeed, if the health of a nation is reflected in the well-being of its citizens, the Philippines is the metaphorical and literal “sick man of Asia.”
The leading causes of sickness in the country, for instance, are considered avoidable and treatable through proper sanitation, access to clean water, and relevant preventive programs at the community level. The leading causes of death also paint a grim picture of the country’s health situation.
Tuberculosis, another preventable and treatable disease, still claims the lives of 132 Filipinos everyday. Every nine minutes, a child under the age of five dies of heart disease. Ten women die everyday from causes related to childbirth or pregnancy. TB, cardio-vascular and pulmonary diseases, diabetes are also preventable and treatable illnesses that claim thousands of lives every year because of a mediocre healthcare system.
Why a country known for its excellent nurses and doctors fails in terms of healthcare is best explained by the dominance of a neoliberal framework in governance and human development. Instead of fulfilling its obligation to deliver basic social services like healthcare, the State has relinquished its role to the private sector, where market imperatives take precedence over human development needs. Incentives are given to the private sector at the expense of public health.
Since the passage of the Local Government Code, local governments have the burden of delivering healthcare without the necessary resources and capabilities to do it.
Akbayan Party-list asserts that public health is not a question of market imperatives or trade, where profit dictates over human development and social equity. Our agenda is to put public health back in realm of basic rights and human dignity.
