Philippine E-Journals

Amidst Poverty And Illness: Experiences of Patients In Public Hospitals

Gina R. Gatarin

Discipline: Public Health

 

Abstract:

Health is a fundamental concern for the state to have a “quality population”. As both a right and a responsibility, people are taught that “governing oneself” is a necessary condition to help in the pursuit of a strong nation-state. The delegation of responsibility within the individual and his/her immediate horizon confers them to embody agency to seek for possible means on how to address their needs. Patients and their families are rendered as responsible for their illness, hospitalization and poverty since they are expected to “take care of themselves” as Michel Foucault suggest in his later works. Through this, individuals are “delegated the agency” to find solutions for their problems. The experiences of the companions of patients availing social services have been explored in this study to know the dynamics of how they deal with their financial limitations. The participants exercised their sense of agency through borrowing money, betting in the lottery, joining game shows and promos, seeking assistance from government institutions as well as politicians, etc. Most of them exhibit the an attitude that just endures and tolerates their situation wherein they have no access to health insurance and they just let it be whenever they don’t have the money to buy the medications of the patients. Despite this situation, they don’t blame anybody since they see themselves as merely asking for assistance giving them no right to appear demanding.