On being Happy, Healthy and Prepared | Philcare Wellness Index

I'll admit, I'm quite okay with the health of my family and mine, but with today's inflation, we can't really get regular medical check ups. And those times that we had to rush our kids to the hospital, we had less than what we need to pay for the medical bills.

Most pinoys are in this predicament of being in an overall good state of health but are unprepared for medical needs if emergencies arise.

The PhilCare Wellness Index

PhilCare led a research on the state of health in the Philippines, with factors based on the studies of other first world countries. These factors are Physical, Nutritional, Madical, Lifestyle and ppsychological. They did however, add in a very important factor that has a big pull on the state of our health- Finance.

60 percent of respondents have brought about up to P30,000 in doctor’s visit expenses, which equates to a family's one month salary.

From L-R: Dr. Fernando Paragas: Lead Researcher, Mr. Jaeger Tanco: President and CEO of PhilCare, Dr. Enrique T. Ona, Former Secretary of Health and Member of PhilCare Board and Mr. Monico Jacob, PhilCare Chairman of the Board

While for most pinoys, they feel that they look and feel fit, with the correct Body Mass Index, the studies led by Dr. Fernando Paragas of the University of the Philippines show that within these, there are silent illnesses rampant among Filipinos like hypertension, for starters.

Overall, factors like the Philippine environment (commuting in the metro, etc), and financial incapability hinder the filipinos health. 60 percent of respondents have brought about up to P30,000 in doctor’s visit expenses, which equates to a family's one month salary. And while they have Philhealth, we all know that it is not enough to support such average digits of medical bills if the need arise.

And the sad thing is that people are not aware of HMOs (health maintenance organization) and their offers. Only 5% of working individuals are aware that they have this in their companies.

The great thing is that Philcare plans to pass this Wellness Index to the government to help the health sector come up with programs that are fit for attaining a better state of wellness for the average working pinoy.

What we can do in an emergency?

In the meantime, I find it best to apply for Philcare's Prepaid cards and plans which are health plans more accessible for everyone. For example, their ER Vantage Plus cards only cost 1750 Pesos but you can get up to 80,000 Pesos in coverage in the event of an emergency. And there are quite a lot of PhilCare Accredited hospitals around the whole country. Here's a list of some of their prepaid health cards if you are not into paying for a lot of money in insurance.

• Dengue Assist (599 Php) Dengue Assist is a single-use online voucher that gives you up to P30,000 coverage on actual hospitalization expense incurred due to Dengue Disease.
•  ER Vantage Plus 80 for Adults (1750 Php) A single-use healthcare voucher that provides coverage of up to P80,000 for emergency care and hospitalization for viral and bacterial illnesses, treatment of injuries resulting from accidents (except for stroke) in 500+ designated PhilCare-accredited hospitals nationwide.
• ER Shield (800 Php) ER Shield is a single-use health voucher that provides coverage for outpatient emergency care for viral and bacterial illnesses and treatment of injuries resulting from accidents.
• Philcare Agapay 700 (700 Php) a health card that covers a single-use benefit up to *Php40,000 for ambulance service, out-patient emergency care and hospitalization for viral, bacterial illnesses and treatment of injuries resulting from accidents (excepts for stroke) in 500+ PhilCare-accredited hospitals.

Paying 700 pesos or 1700 in advance for me is easier than having to shell out 30,000 Pesos in case of an emergency. I was feeling a bit sad as last year, when my daughter was hospitalized, I know we could've saved a lot if only we had these cards. By the way, her hospitalization and room cost us about 20,000 pesos and if we only had these back then, we could have saved up to at least 15,000 pesos in expenses.

For more information on how to shop for your prepaid health card or other plans that PhilCare has to offer, check them out at www.philcare.com.ph