Dear respectable followers of MediHelp and MediSky
As the world around us is changing, and a new set of worries are emerging, it is clear that soon a new world-order will take over. New arrangements will replace some of the old, new opportunities will push aside some old-time institutions habits and commercial giants. Industries which are now in a decline will suffer losses and some will never be able to recover. A lot will change.
One thing we can be sure of, however, is that your quest and wish to see a proper and accessible-healthcare will still be listed at the top of your priorities, and will continue to be so also in the era post the current crisis.
Nobody knows how long this COVID-19 crisis will govern our lives, but for sure it will inflict a terrible blow on the already strugglingnational health systems, and not just those in Europe where the pandemic seems to be at its most virulent.
In my lectures and articles, I have often explained that public health has sunk into a position of no hope. It was only last month, at a conference in Athens, that I showcased the below table.
2016
UK
FR
DE
RO
HU
PO
Healthcare expenditure (EUR per inhabitant)
3,566
3,847
4,271
432
853
731
Stroke disease mortality (age-standardised rate per 100,000 population)
67
46
65
270
101
147
Proportion of adults with diabetes (%)
4.2
4.6
8.4
9.5
5.8
7.5
Deaths due to pollution(Mortality per 1,000,000 population)
389
269
475
876
704
958
Preventable mortality rates (age standardised rates per 100,000 population)
211
184
215
363
276
418
Amenable (treatable) mortality rates (age standardised rates per 100,000 population)
117
78
116
318
169
268
In this table, you can see the amount of funds allocated to each of us in the CEE countries where most of my readers live in. It looked to be an impossible situation in the past, and now it looks like nothing other than a joke.
Now, with the current sad situation of an additional burden on the health system, we will witness what I have been predicting and warning about for many years.
The national health system will crumble under the new requirements for urgent or imminent needs for long-term care, resulting from the so-called “coronavirus”.
The “routine chronically ill patients”, those who are now old and sick, will not be able to wait until the crisis is over, while the additional “new arrivals” requiring attention for cardiac disease, cancer, kidneyfailure, etc. will not stop.
It can be that many people will now turn to private providers for medical attention, though very soon they too will be under pressure from patients who cannot get medical attention from the national system.
Private medical providers will have to offer a service to their many subscribers which have an arrangement with them. These arrangements were never properly priced, and for sure were not priced for a tidal wave of claims and they were usually sold at a price intended to beat the competition.
In this reality, very soon, medical providers will prefer the “paying patient.” If you can pay for your treatment, you will become a source of “financialblood” they will be in high demand. So, those patients who appear at a clinic with a private health insurance policy will become “the preferred” customer, as cruel as this may sound.
It was always my position that the state had to encourage the health insurance industry to grow and flourish. That would probably enable the private health provider industry to grow as well, which would reduce the pressure on the collapsing national system.
This did not happen, and now it is too late to fix. But for you, it would be best if you could keep your insurance plan, keep it safe, keep it paid up, or buy one if you don’t have one.
You will not know how to thank us for this advice in time to come.
Zahal Levy,
President
MediHelp/MediSky International
