Three
candidates from Team PNoy were invited (or accepted the invite?) that day, Ms.
Risa Hontiveros of Akbayan Party, former Senator Ramon “Jun” Magsaysay, and
Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero. This coming Monday, March 11, three Senatorial
candidates from team UNA will speak on the same topic, to be held at the same
hotel.
Ms.
Hontiveros said that there is need for more government involvement, need for more regulations by the government of
the health sector because “markets do not work” well for the poor patients.
That Filipino health professionals like doctors and nurses should stay in the
country as much as possible because of the high need for their expertise,
especially in the rural areas.
During the
open forum, I commented that her proposals are more socialistic and that it is
not true that markets do not work. Markets do work. For instance, there are no
government hotels, no government restaurants or carinderia, no government
supermarkets, and yet people are eating. In health, there are thousands of
barangay health centers, thousands of government-sponsored drugstores, hundreds
of government hospitals, drug price control policies, a government health
insurance monopoly, health budget of DOH and local governments are rising, and
yet health problems are expanding.
I added
that it is weird that there are socialist leaning in a liberal coalition under
a liberal government. In theory, liberalism is the opposite of socialism, they
are east and west or north and south apart. There is some similarity between
socialism and conservatism but not with liberalism.
She
replied that hotels cannot be compared with healthcare so that while there may
be no government presence in hotel, there should be one in healthcare because
health is a right, many poor patients cannot afford private healthcare. Her
being a social democrat is not consistent with being in a liberal coalition
because their goal is the same, a clean and responsive government. I did not
pursue a follow up question as there were other hands that were raised at the
open forum.
Next
speaker was Mr. Magsaysay, who said that one problem of the government is the
high overhead cost,a bloated bureaucracy, resulting in high red tape and
business bureaucracies. There is need to privatize some government functions to
reduce cost. There are about 500 district hospitals nationwide, and many are
barely surviving, local physicians can help by banding together to run and
manage the hospital themselves, ownership will still be with government.
I spoke
again during the open forum, I asked if there is anyone in the PNoy coalition
who raise concern about the high public debt. As of end-2012, the total public
debt stood at P5.44 trillion, or nearly P57,000 for each Filipino, from babies
to oldies. People normally do not owe this big and only government is capable
of expanding this inefficiency and stupidity of ever-rising public debt. Then I
asked if he is amenable to remove or abolish taxation of medicines.
He replied
that reducing the debt is indeed an important issue, and that there should be
no tax on medicines, electricity, water and other essential services. And said
that he supports a minimal government principle. I like this guy.
The last
speaker was Sen. Escudero, said that there are many laws already, and some P500
billion worth of unfunded laws. If one goal of the sin tax law is to discourage
children and minors from smoking, there is already an existing law prohibiting
this, but no one has been arrested for violating this law. He also supported
the renationalization of healthcare. Preventive healthcare is more important
than curative healthcare.
What he
said about unfunded laws is so true. For instance, Congress creates various
regional or municipal trial courts, or various drug rehabilitation centers or
new secondary or vocational schools, and yet they are not funded in the annual
budget. I asked him at the open forum if he is open to the possibility of
limiting Congress’ appetite at drug price control and mandatory discounts like
the 20 percent discount for senior citizens and persons with disability, plus
non-inclusion of the 12 percent VAT on medicine prices. The result of this is
that various players in the pharma sector – drugstores, wholesalers, manufacturers,
hospitals – are passing the burden to each other. For some small drugstores, some
close down or those surviving have stopped selling some medicines for the
senior citizens because they are losing money. So what happens is that there is
“cheap but not available medicines.”
He said
that the discount for senior citizens should be retained but there are other
measures to bring down medicine prices. For instance, medicines that have been
approved by the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) should not be subjected
to another set of regulatory approval by our FDA and this will bring down the
cost for those imported medicines. What is needed only is an MOU between the
country’s FDA and its counterparts abroad, no need for a new law.
I failed
to clarify that any amendment to the senior citizens discount should target
only the poorer ones and exclude the rich senior citizens. Many of those small
drugstores are struggling financially, some have already closed, and they are
forced to subsidize the rich oldies. I like his proposal on the FDA drug
approval process.
Dr. Alberto "Quasi" Romualdez, former DOH Secretary and among the core group members of the UHC study group, gave the closing remarks. He emphasized the problem of health inequity in the country.
We should
avoid welfare populism as much as possible. Populism often leads to despotism.
If the mob and the populists want all sorts of freebies to be provided to them
by government, then the productive sectors of society will be the modern slaves
that must finance all those senseless freebies.
-------------See also:
Election Watch 1: Anti Epal Photos, June 29, 2012
Election Watch 2: On Celebrities as Politicians, August 19, 2012
Election Watch 3: Defining Celebrities, Politicians and the State, August 30, 2012
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