Best Posts in Thread: health care

Just to add: not all hospitals in the Philippines work like those in Dumaguete. When I had my motorcycle accident in Kalibo (I hit a girl running across the road without looking) I went to the public hospital there. They treated me and the girl without asking for a single peso. They gave me a look over, scrubbed the sh*t out of my road rash (ouch!), provided bandages and a shot. The girl was looked over by the doctor and prescribed some Tylenol for a scratch on her head (15 pesos worth....that I did pay for). I asked how much the bill was and they just smiled and said "no charge sir". I later had an x-ray because that sh*t really hurt and I wanted to be sure I didn't break anything, which I didn't....but I did break the cartilage in my ribs and some in my shoulder. They asked me for the operating costs for running the x-ray and that was it. I think that was around 1k pesos. They wanted me to hang around for a "specialist" to look at my x-rays....after an hour of waiting I just looked at the x-rays myself and compared to some google search results to make sure everything was in it's place and then went on my way.

Now the girl's family eventually wanted to get paid and continually asked for more and more medical treatment that wasn't needed and the police kept shrugging their shoulders and telling me I should give the family what they wanted (which I didn't....had them sign an agreement at a lawyers office that they wouldn't pursue any further legal actions against me and paid them off) but that had nothing to do with the hospital.

 

I've heard of police showing up at the hospital to make sure that a person pays. Like any law in the Philippines, what it says is one thing, how it is enforced is another.