Philippines
National
Recto bats for increased spending on medical scholarships to deal with PH's ageing population
Recto bats for increased spending on medical scholarships to deal with PH's ageing population
Producing doctors would cost a fraction of the government’s intelligence and confidential fund but it would yield a high return of investment (ROI) in the long run for a country that lacks public health physicians, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said on Wednesday.
In expressing his support for the Medical Scholarship Bill, which the Senate passed last Monday, Recto said there is a need to finance the studies of doctors as the Philippines faces an ageing population.
A graying Philippine population, the senator said, is one of the primary reasons the government should finance the studies of doctors “and not leave it to family incomes or what the pocket can afford.”
“It is certainly lower than this year’s P9.6-billion intelligence and confidential fund, a fraction of the P20.1-billion travel fund, and a drop in the bucket of the P1.2-trillion personal services budget,” Recto said referring to these items included in the proposed 2021 national budget.
According to the Department of Health (DOH), the Philippines lacks 78,400 doctors to serve a population of about 106.9 million.
But Recto said the Philippines must look beyond the present shortages and instead brace for the future.
“This is about future-proofing our country, so we can serve both ends of the demographic scale,” he stressed.
“If the budgets of many inconsequential agencies are seen as an expense vital to democracy, then why should medical scholarships be disparaged as a nonessential luxury?” he pointed out.
Citing government studies, Recto said there were only 4.6 million Filipinos 60 years and older some two decades ago; now, there are nearly 10 million.
“Today, seniors account for 8.6 percent of our population. By 2050, their share will be about 16.5 percent,” Recto said.
Dementia alone—the one disease that hits the elderly—already costs the world economy US$1-trillion and will double by 2030.
“Although we have yet to forecast how much this disease would cost our economy, there is no doubt it would be also high in our country. So this is the future that we have to brace for,” Recto emphasized.