Crystal Al-Nawwar wrote on mtv:
A significant increase in the number of critically ill persons who need hospital care has been recorded. What is shocking is that these people go to clinics and their conditions have worsened to what cannot be managed by the usual methods, hoping to find alternative ways of dealing with their disease, all in order to avoid going to hospitals and incurring the costs of care there.
A citizen in the Bekaa Valley said, “I knew that going to the emergency room was necessary when I noticed the rapid change in the color of my toe, but I also realized that going to the hospital would cost me no less than two million Lebanese pounds. I cannot afford such an amount when I do not have any.” source of income.” He added, “My son earns less than 50,000 Lebanese pounds per day, and we need this money to buy food and secure housing.”
This citizen, who is 74 years old and suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, visited the Arsal clinic in the Bekaa, at a time when he needed medical care in the hospital!
Médecins Sans Frontières notes that “the patient has been to the clinic for 3 years, and he was not able to pay the costs of following the health system for diabetics, which contributed to the further deterioration of his condition, and subsequently led to the amputation of his left foot.” He pointed out that “the man noticed a change in the color of his finger two weeks before his visit to the clinic, but he turned a blind eye and did not tell anyone because he knew that he would not be able to afford the necessary care in the hospital.”
In this context, Tracey Makhlouf, Director of Communications and Communication at Doctors Without Borders in Lebanon, told mtv, “The economic crisis has prevented many people from being able to afford hospital care, and people are delaying their timely medical treatment. The difficulty of the situation is that people’s salaries have lost a large part of their value, which hinders the citizen from bearing the costs of care or resorting to private insurance to cover these costs.
We are witnessing a sharp decline in the actual value of state contributions, as the National Social Security Fund, along with the Ministry of Public Health, covered hospital fees to a large extent, according to the patient’s employment status and medical standards. Often, these contributions covered between 85 and 90 percent of the costs, with the patient paying the rest.
But in light of the current economic crisis, the insurance and the Ministry of Health cover a small part of the actual costs; They are also suffering financially, which has prevented them from being able to help more.
Doctors Without Borders explains: “Currently, hospital fees are set according to the current value of the local currency in the market, while the National Social Security Fund and the Ministry of Health are still providing assistance on the basis of the pre-crisis currency value, so the patient has to bear about 90 percent. of actual expenses.
Crises are exacerbating amid the absence of solutions, so what awaits the Lebanese yet?