NAGIGING hadlang ang mahal na pagpapa-dialysis para sa mahihirap upang sila’y magamot at gumaling.Ito ang dahilan kung bakit inihain ni Bohol Third District Rep. Arthur Yap ang House Bill 2466, na magkakaloob ng libreng dialysis para sa mahihirap na hindi kayang magpagamot, iniulat ng Philippines News Agency (PNA).

“Confounding the problem is the fact that sophisticated and advanced hospital and medical equipment and facilities are found mostly in highly urbanized cities, so much so that patients from the rural areas have to travel all the way to these urban cities just to avail themselves of the needed treatment,” ayon kay Yap.

Nakapaloob din sa House Bill 2466 na ang lahat ng pampublikong ospital (national, regional at provincial) na maglaan ng dialysis wards para sa mahihirap.

At kapag ito ay pumasa na sa Kongreso, ito ay tinawag na “Dialysis Center Act of 2016”.

Sa ilalim ng panukala, “dialysis treatment in all national, regional and provincial government hospitals shall be provided free of charge to indigent patients”.

“In consonance with the government’s mandate to provide Filipinos with comprehensive health services, local government units must be activated to provide for the necessary facilities to make available and affordable the medical treatments much needed by the people particularly in the far-flung areas of the country,” diin ni Yap.

Ipinaliwanag ni Yap na, “under the proposed measure, a patient whose annual family income does not exceed Php 30,000 will qualify under the category of indigent patient and be entitled to dialysis at no cost”.

Sinabi rin niya na malaking pera ang kinakailangan.

“When both kidneys fail due to various reasons- -usually diabetes, inflammation of the kidney and high blood pressure- -the struggle to stay alive hinges either on a kidney transplant or continuous dialysis treatments.

“A transplant can cost around Php 500,000 to a million pesos, while dialysis treatments costs Php 3,500 on the average per session,” ani Yap.

Inihalimbawa niya ang mga reaksiyon ng mga pasyente na nagda-dialysis ng dalawa hanggang tatlong beses sa isang linggo na nagkakahalaga ng P28,000 hanggang P42,000 kada buwan.

“Those numbers are undeniably very costly and unaffordable by most Filipinos, which explains why renal disease is one of the top 10 causes of death in the Philippines. Stories of kidney patients begging around for funds from legislators and charitable institutions to pay for their dialysis treatments are, sadly, just too familiar,” sabi ni Yap.