(From Manila Times, Tuesday, 09 March 2010)
THE banner of the Inquirer on Monday “More Pinoys poor, GMA adviser
admits” did not surprise anyone.
For the fact reiterated in the
banner is known to most Filipinos.
It is personally known especially by those
who make up more than 50 percent of the population who live below, on
and just barely above the poverty line, and even those who used to
belong to the shrinking middle class and have become poor but are still
maintaining, painfully, their better-than-poverty-stricken lifestyle.
It
was also not a surprise that the statement that gave the banner a bite
had come from Gov. Jose Salceda of Albay. Salceda is he who had said of
the President, in connection with the streak of economic expansion that
makes banks and international agencies respect the Arroyo
administration, that she is “one lucky bitch.”
Salceda said,
according to the Inquirer, that his biggest frustration was seeing that
the 34 quarters of uninterrupted economic growth in the nine years that
Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been president “did little to reduce
poverty and the number of poor people.”
New medicine
policy not helping poor
Newly released findings of an
Asian Institute of Management center confirms the depth of poverty in
our country in respect to poor people and the medicine they need but
cannot afford to have.
The study finds that the newly introduced
medicines policy—just like the Gross Domestic Product growth or economic
expansion the Philippines (or rather the Filipino rich) has enjoyed
these past nine years—has not benefited the poor of our country.
The
Center for Legislative Development (CLD), an independent policy
research center, finds that the latest government drug policy that sets
price ceilings on some essential medicines has been ineffective.
The new cheaper medicines law and policy have failed to improve the
poor’s access to medicine. Why? Simply because the sick who are poor
don’t have money to buy these medicines even at the current reduced
prices.
The study involved surveys in known poor barangays in
Manila, Caloocan and Quezon City. It found that even with the
substantial reduction in prices of medicines, the poor still find it
difficult to buy the number and quality of drugs they need to cure or
control their illnesses.
The survey was done a month after the
initial implementation of the Access to Cheaper and Quality Medicines
Law.
Most respondents in the surveys reported that they only
sporadically or even rarely purchased maintenance drugs prescribed by
their physicians. A key finding in the study confirmed that access to
medical care, i.e., the availability of a doctor, is a key factor in
determining access to medicine.
Without regular consultations,
respondents resorted to relying on other sources for information such as
drugstore clerks, neighbors or relatives, to determine their medicine
purchases. Physicians warn that consumption of prescription medicines
should be under the supervision of a qualified medical practitioner.
This
is because the most common illnesses—such as hypertension, diabetes,
and arthritis—are long-term, chronic illnesses. Irregular consumption or
consumption of the wrong medicines means most of these poor patients
are in fact putting their lives at greater risk.
The study
concludes that the Filipino poor are so poor that price cuts would not
result in their greater access to medicines and that the policy to
mediate access to medicines through pricing intervention would benefit
mainly middle-class poeple who already have access to medicines.
Prof.
Emmanuel Leyco, CLD’s Executive Director who specializes on health care
financing, reiterated a conclusion found in many earlier studies: “If
the government wishes to reach the poorest sector, it may have to
explore other means, like adopting a drug subsidy program for the poor,
financed and administered by the national health insurance program.“
Prof.
Leyco said the current price reduction policy could only result in
broader access by the poor if it is combined with a drug procurement
program by government that targets priority diseases and population
segments in known poor geographical areas.