10% matters

My brother was watching a Michael Moore documentary, SiCKO. Since we were in the same room, I unintentionally ended up watching some of it as well. I didn't get to watch the whole thing but whatever I was able to watch was enough.

I wanted to go to med school and was half-planning on practicing in another country. I was thinking of going to UST because it was acknowledged in the US. However, after watching SiCKO, I changed my mind. I still want to go to med and I will. But I definitely won't practice in the US.

Many of the people there don't have medical insurance. Since healthcare for them is really expensive, some people result to doing minor surgery on themselves. Through the documentary, I found out that their medical personnel are required to reject 10% of their patients. That's a quota they have to reach. If you reject more than 10%, you get a bonus. If their patients can't pay, they put them on a taxi and send them to another hospital. A woman who had a few broken ribs and a broken collarbone was thrown out into the streets (in a hospital gown) because she didn't have the money to pay. A group of Americans who became ill from volunteering at 911 Ground Zero were refused health coverage for their illnesses. They were ferried to Cuba and they were able to receive the best medical care. For free. And the only information needed for them to "check-in" were their names and birthdays.

If a 3rd world country can provide this kind of medical care for their citizens and for other people, why can't a supposedly 1st world country do the same? If the price of being paid well is this, then I'd rather work somewhere else that pays less but provides the best available.

A lot of people have already told me that there's actually a shortage of doctors, not just in the Philippines but worldwide. Well, if all doctors were required to reject at least 10% of the people who come to them for help, then how can there ever be enough?