Give the gift of life

After multiple paydays this year, my mathematics department colleagues and I give whatever we can to coworkers in need of medical assistance. Our chairperson describes their respective illnesses, ranked in terms of urgency, one designated recipient at a time, and we donate once we receive our salaries.

This is in no way an official scholastic activity, but rather a spontaneous response to help friends whose physical suffering is compounded by practical worries about affording quality medical care.

Since I began teaching almost 40 years ago, I have recognized that while our society pays lip service to education, our pay can never come close to that of other professions. Newspaper columnists or science writers do not get paid much, either.

But I enjoy interacting with students, I treat colleagues as family, I believe in our founders’ values, I live simply. My father toiled all his life to provide for us, and fortunately, too, my husband, now semi-retired from the corporate world, earns a decent living. We can live comfortably, with savings for emergencies.

Not everyone is as blessed. No teacher ever expects to strike it rich, but we assume that when needed, we have access to good health care. After all, we faithfully contribute to a health maintenance organization (HMO), and to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

However, to our disappointment, individuals more often than not still have to shell significant amounts out-of-pocket. Young, middle-aged, senior colleagues afflicted with diverse conditions involving sensory, musculoskeletal, internal, gynecological, neurological organs — whether caused by accidents and acute stressors or debilitating syndromes and life-threatening illnesses — experience added frustration and anxiety about procedures, medications, therapies at times when they should be focusing on healing.

Knowing the limitations of HMOs, our school has contingency funds, albeit with a cap. After concerns were raised, Human Resources worked out a plan to up existing coverage for those who opt for it, in return for a minimal payroll deduction. This is a good move.

We give generously, setting aside what we can from our paychecks. But that we feel compelled to do so is an indictment of a broken health care system. An agency mandated to safeguard national health is beset by numerous controversies, from billions of pesos in unused funds, with even more in reserve (for what?) to huge unpaid obligations to private hospitals. How can the Universal Health Care Act, signed into law five years ago, come to fruition? That premiums were even hiked this year is gut-wrenching. Long-overdue benefits to a long-suffering public were announced recently — may these be disbursed with prudence and care.

The travesty is worse when children suffer. Here in the Inquirer, I was disturbed to learn about the plight of plucky four-year-old Joachim “Wax” Maceda, diagnosed with genetic epilepsy with febrile seizure due to brain cyst. In and out of the hospital since he was a baby, Wax must take anti-epilepsy medicines that run approximately P5000 a month, and undergo checkups that cost another P2500.

His mother Mona, a marketing officer at the Inquirer, contributes to an HMO and PhilHealth, but neither covers anything related to seizures or cysts. The family has to shoulder everything.

“I hope that we can receive 100-percent coverage and assistance,” says Mona. But while we share that hope, let us give Wax the gift of life this Yuletide. Send donations to Mona Maceda’s PSBank account with number 1334-0000-0886. Contact Mona at 0919-061-1318.

After giving practical aid, we turn to the divine. For months now, our math faculty and staff have been storming the heavens during twice-weekly Zoom prayer circles, praying for the healing of loved ones. To compensate for a dysfunctional health care system, we become each other’s keepers.

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Queena N. Lee-Chua is on the Board of Directors of Ateneo’s Family Business Center. Get her print book “All in the Family Business” at Lazada or Shopee, or e-book at Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks. Contact the author at [email protected].