How much should you pay for your health?

Millions of people are pushed into extreme poverty simply because they pay large sums of money for healthcare. In this episode, we discuss the feasibility of universal health coverage, highlighting arguments for and against this principle. We emphasise on the implications of lacking financial protection and the collective efforts required from stakeholders across the globe to promote progressive healthcare systems nationally and internationally.  

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Additional resources:

Sustainable Development Goals (who.int)

21072_WHS 2021 (who.int)

Progress towards universal coverage: the health systems of Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania - PubMed (nih.gov)

Transcript

Jocelyne 

How much should people pay for their health? How much do you pay for your health? 

Edna

At least a dollar. 

Loza

I know they got the money there. Like, I just want to say, if they just stop spending so much in their military to terrorize the rest of the the world.

Edna

How are your prisons more well-funded and a better environment to access health care?

Jocelyne

Hello, globies. Welcome to World Health Investigation. My name is Jocelyne.

Edna

I'm Edna.

Loza

And I'm Loza.

Edna

We are three young global health professionals and your hosts for the World Health Investigation podcast…

Loza

Also known as the WHI. We'll be discussing all things global health and unpacking the most controversial health and social issues.

Edna

As well as promoting new-wave global health development and equity.

Jocelyne

So, ladies, what's the tea in global health today?

Loza

What is it the tea? 

Edna

What is the tea? Who is spilling the tea today? What are we spilling?

Loza

Right? Tell us Jocelyne.  

Jocelyne 

Am I spilling the tea?

Edna

You are spilling the tea.

Jocelyne 

I'm spilling the tea? Ok let me start y’all. I’m going to ask a very generic question. How much should people pay for their health? How much do you pay for your health? 

Edna

At least a dollar. 

Loza

I was going to say zero, please. I don't have money. 

Jocelyne 

Personally, I don't want to pay for nothing. Anything. Absolutely nothing. 

Edna

Nothing

Jocelyne 

But the truth is we live in a world where we have to pay for everything. We have to pay for…

Loza

Everything has a price. 

Edna

Everything has a price. 

Jocelyne 

Everything has a price. And we're going to find out what that price is. So usually, as young people, we don't tend to think about the price of health care. We don't think about the cost of healthcare because, I mean, if you grew up, let's say, middle class, high class, maybe not low class, your parents probably paid for whatever health insurance system you had or probably made sure that you were okay and you were alive. That's why you're alive today, right? Yeah. So you didn't have to worry about it. But as you grow up, you start to realise that it costs, it costs money. Healthcare costs money.

Edna 

Yeah

Jocelyne

Healthcare costs..

Loza

Edna the way you that sounded…She said yeah

Jocelyne 

We’re going to dive into a bit of that and how we're going to address it. And the whole concept behind universal health coverage. 

Loza

Hey, we're going to be educated today. 

Jocelyne 

Yeah. We're going to break down what universal health coverage is. And then I'll give you an example and we look at a case study. 

So universal health coverage is the principle that all people, no matter their social, economic, geographic conditions, have access to essential health services at low or no out of pocket cost to them. Essentially, the goal is to prevent health care from pushing people into poverty. 

Edna 

That makes sense to me. 

Loza

Yeah, healthcare should not… 

Jocelyne 

Beautiful, right? 

Edna 

Beautiful concept. 

Loza

I like it. 

Edna

Wonderful, if I’m poor I should be able to access health, right? 

Jocelyne 

Right? It’s a beautiful concept.

Edna 

If I’m Black, Latino I should be able to access health, right?

Loza

Yeah 

Edna

That makes sense to me 

Loza 

Yeah

Jocelyne 

That makes sense to me. But the reality is, what happens? Let’s find out. So we are going to look into an example. I watch..I was watching Chicago Med. I don’t know if you guys watch Chicago Med, whoever has watched Chicago Med.  

Edna 

Heard of it.

Loza

I have heard of it.

Jocelyne 

You’ve heard of it? I love it, I was obsessed with it. But it was in this episode where this man, right, he got in his car and on his way, he hit this person. And the person got into a traumatic injury was brought to the hospital and they couldn't get saved and died. Right. So eventually we checked and we see that this guy was trying to hide from his wife about his admission to the hospital. The guy that hit the person was trying to hide from his wife that he went to the hospital with somebody. So essentially the doctor tries to find out why is he hiding from his wife. Like what is he scared would happen.

Edna 

Yeah 

Jocelyne 

So the wife finds out later on, that, okay, my husband has been hiding, hiding this from me. And it turns out that this man had cancer. 

Edna

The husband?

Loza

The husband that hit the person. 

Jocelyne 

The husband that hit the person has cancer. And now this man is about to go to jail. And the doctor said, no, I don't want to go to jail. He's going to jail because he hit this person. The person died, right? And the doctor is like, no, I don't want my patient to go to jail because essentially he was going to protect this guy. But then the guy just surprisingly, just like, I don't mind going to jail….It doesn’t make…

Loza

Like oh well.

Jocelyne 

And the doctor is like, “ Do you understand the implications of your actions? If you give yourself to the police, you will go to jail.” He said, “Yes, it's fine. I don't mind. I mean, it happens. I deserve it.” And then it turns out that he was saying, no, the doctor put the pieces together that he was saying that he wants to go to jail because he knew the whole time that he had cancer. But when he told him he had cancer, he said, I knew long time ago and he knew that going to jail would get him free health care, free treatment for his cancer.

Edna

Huuuh? I'd rather go to jail. 

Jocelyne 

Yeah. it sounds messed up. 

Loza

He went through so many tests I said “Ohh..”

Jocelyne 

He would rather go to jail. 

Loza

Because otherwise there's no way he'd get treatment. 

Jocelyne

Yeah 

Edna

He can't afford it. 

Jocelyne

He can't afford the treatment. He can’t afford the treatment. Knowing that in the Chicago prisons, Chicago prisons offer health care. They offer, I think, mostly free health care, especially for cancer. So he knew that he would afford it…not afford…access it in jail. So, yeah, that's one of my favourite episodes, because it just highlights the extent to which people would go to get healthy… 

Loza

Right. 

Jocelyne

Even going into crime to get healthy because he..it’s not like he…he purposely hit someone.

Loza

Hit someone who died.

Jocelyne

Who died. 

Loza

It’s a lot.

Edna

This is America. 

Loza

I was like America, that is America. 

Jocelyne

Americarr

Loza

Anyway chile, that country. Okay, interesting. 

Jocelyne

Okay. So that just makes me I don't know, it makes my body itch. I don't know about you guys, it makes my body itch. I want to ask you, ladies, do you understand where he's coming from or do you relate in any way, shape or form? We don't judge here. Or do you understand the importance of universal health coverage? And how can we link it to this example? 

Edna

Yeah.

Loza

Yeah, girl, that's deep. I mean, I've never been in such a desperate situation, but I know, especially looking at the US’ with health care from the outside, I read somewhere that was like, basically their health care system is like GoFundMe based because a lot of people, when they get into situations like, for example, with cancer or really expensive… well..illnesses that require expensive treatments because it's out of pocket or they're not covered, they have to rely on people's help from GoFundMes or donations in order to afford health care. So this is, I think, obviously because it's a TV show, like an exaggerated version of the length people go to. I've seen diabetic people in the US having to go get their insulin from Canada. So, yeah, it does make my blood bow because it's kind of like, especially with the US being such a rich country, that I… I know they got the money there. I just want to say if they just stopped spending so much in their military to terrorize the rest of the world…

Jocelyne 

Oh oh oh

Loza 

Then maybe… I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.

Jocelyne 

Tell them, tell them. 

Loza

And maybe repurposed it a little. Me I’m not the US’ President, but y’all have no excuse, you get what I mean? It is…they are a rich country, and their people should not be going through, like, such lengths in order to afford healthcare. That’s it. That's all I have to say. 

Jocelyne

It's funny how you say that, Loza, because oftentimes when we think of universal coverage, all health care, it's the poor people that need it.

Loza

Oh yeah. Low resource settings. 

Jocelyne

Low resource settings. 

Loza

Underdeveloped countries. 

Jocelyne

Countries. 

Loza

Africa. 

Jocelyne

We're going to look into high income countries and look into low income countries. Everybody. But this is the US we are talking about. So the land of the free, the land of money, land of money. But health care is still a basic problem. Come on now. 

Edna

Yeah.

Loza

It's unacceptable to me, but… 

Edna

100%. To me, like, I'm also triggered by this because I'm like, how are your prisons more well funded and a better environment to access health care than…

Jocelyne

Oh oh. Sorry

Loza

Let’s talk about the prisons. Please

Jocelyne

Repeat that, repeat that please. Repeat that. Repeat that.

Edna

How can your prisons have better healthcare funding and services than your actual hospitals? That… I don't understand how you can…

Loza

What, like how?

Jocelyne

I can’t.

Edna

I don't understand how you can allow that to happen. 

Jocelyne

The fact that there's so many prisons. There’s so many prisons. 

Loza

The prison system…Listen 

Jocelyne

[inaudible] in prison. 

Edna

He said “I'd rather be in prison, than stay outside here with..” 

Loza

Because outside is death. Like his other option, was literally dying. And that's what it boils down to me. Like, if you don't have enough money, you're dying, but there's treatment that could save your life, but you're dying because you don't have the money, which is ultimately just against everything I believe in. 

Edna

Yeah

Jocelyne 

Yeah this is, this is, this is..I don’t know, tragic, catastrophic. And it kind of highlights why we're talking about this today. We're talking about the extent to which people would go through catastrophic experiences. This is a catastrophic experience. And now I'm going to dive into a few countries, like African countries, actually, that would say have relatively good health care systems, and they still struggle in certain aspects.