Former Deputy Prime Minister and present Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Patrick Faber, last week told the nation that he believes that his mother, who contracted the Sars-CoV-2 virus and became gravely ill, survived because of the specialist care she received at a private hospital.
Despite no numbers being forwarded so that we can compare private and public health care in regard to the chances of survival if you become seriously ill with the Covid-19 virus, or have any other medical emergency, almost everyone would choose the private hospital if they could afford it. The cost for one night in intensive care at a private hospital is astronomic, upwards of $10,000, while the full cost from serious illness with Covid-19 to recovery in the public Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), is reported to be around $7,000. Fortunately, those figures cannot be used as a barometer for the quality of care, because the bill at all our public hospitals is heavily subsidized.
In Belize’s mixed health system, public hospitals are responsible for primary health care in every corner of the country, and they also provide tertiary care for individuals who are less well off or don’t have health insurance. Private hospitals deliver both primary and tertiary care to individuals who can go to the bank to withdraw or borrow funds.
Failing health/accidents are of great concern to individuals and their families, one, because life is precious, and two, because of the high cost of care if the health problem or accident is serious. The public hospitals do their best to deliver quality health services, and they do a terrific job, but they are oftentimes overwhelmed. Everyone knows the best care is at the private hospitals, but few can foot the bills.
If heaven were a thing one could gain with money, the rich would have the hereafter all sewed up. Heaven, we know, is a matter of Grace. Time on earth, that other great prize, is oftentimes greatly influenced by cold cash, as confirmed by Leader of the Opposition Faber when he discussed the care he paid/borrowed money for at a private hospital to help get his mother through her bout with Covid-19.
Many consider the situation unfair. The Leader of the Opposition asked, “How much is a life worth?” to emphasize his party’s call for the government to acquire the most effective medicines available and use them to help save more Belizean lives, the lives of those of us who don’t have the cold cash to pay.
We live in a capitalist system; there is little talk of socialized medicine, such as what exists in Cuba, in Belize. According to the website, cubaplatform.org, in 1961 the Cuban government began phasing out private health care, which they replaced with a new National Health System, one which provides health care to Cubans free of cost. If there are people in Belize who doubt the quality of healthcare in Cuba, no less than our former prime minister, Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, went there in 2018 for specialist treatment for an ailment.
We don’t know what our former PM paid, if he did, for the spinal fusion surgery he underwent, but according to the website health.costhelper.com, such surgery in the US costs US $80,000 to $150,000 or more. Less than one percent of Belizeans would be able to comfortably afford that kind of care.
Most wealthy capitalist countries provide top quality health care for all, and they tax citizens sufficiently to cover most of the bills. Individuals who have a lot of money, or who have purchased extra health insurance, are able to also access private healthcare providers, so they don’t have to wait in line for their treatment.
How the US delivers health care to its citizens played out before us recently, and it is a tale of high drama — the passing of their ACA (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) during the Obama presidency. J.B. Silvers, PhD, on the website, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, said the US’s ACA was about reforming “the private insurance market”… expanding “Medicaid for the working poor”, and changing “the way that medical decisions are made.” There were massive efforts by Donald Trump, the president who succeeded Obama, to overturn the ACA.
The PUP of 1998-2003 introduced a limited National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme with the stated aim of addressing the affordability of healthcare. A great part of the program is funded by the Social Security Board, with the rest subsidized by the government. Belizeans who get attention at the public hospitals and clinics are still expected to pay a fee in many cases, but that fee, as already stated, is heavily subsidized.
In his memoir, with malice toward none, former Prime Minister, Said W. Musa, said the NHI, which was “first piloted on the South side of the Belize district and later implemented in the Toledo and Stann Creek districts”, was a “huge success”, but the “rollout of the programme was suspended by the UDP Government as one of their first retrograde acts after coming to office in February 2008.”
There is division in our country over our capacity to pay for a national health insurance scheme. Those who lean to the right side, capitalist, say the NHI, if expanded, will lead us into bondage, that we will fall into deep debt, that it is unsustainable, and there are those who believe that healthcare is so important we must make whatever sacrifices are necessary to make it work for all.
One doctor who seems to believe we must do better for less well-off Belizeans is Dr. Fernando Cuellar. The pandemic has hit hard, and on Tuesday on the WuB morning show he told our leaders that we need to start preparing from now for the next threat, which might not be many years away. Dr. Cuellar said we should build a hundred-million-dollar hospital in Belmopan, and equip it with a special facility to deal with the next major health challenge.
No debate, the present system we have shuts out most citizens from getting the best care, and at this newspaper we believe our country’s mission must be to deliver better, more affordable healthcare for our people. To achieve that in our mixed health system, our government leaders can’t be concerned with leaving openings for private healthcare to fill. The focus must be on providing the best public health system.
Belizeans grumble about the earnings of individuals in some professions, but it’s hard to find a Belizean who thinks our doctors are overpaid. Belizeans want our doctors and nurses to be taken care of, and everything else in the health system to be managed with one end in mind only: giving the best healthcare to all Belizeans.