Those doctors, nurses, and pharmacists you rush to text whenever you have health issues. Have you asked them what they want for Christmas, or are you just planning to hit them with problems first?
The problem is that many people don’t realise that hospitals are businesses like any other.
Just the way someone owns a petrol station or a supermarket, someone else owns a hospital and every business expects to make a profit.
The difference, however, is that hospitals deal with life. Sometimes life is restored, and sometimes, despite all efforts, it can be lost.
It’s the same way schools operate: your child may pass or fail, but school fees must be paid because a service was provided.
Healthcare is the most expensive service anyone can offer. Life itself is extremely costly to preserve, and that’s why we continue demanding that government invests more in the health sector.
Because if government facilities fail and yet life must be saved, people have no option but to turn to private hospitals.
So yes, private hospitals are justified to charge what they believe their services cost.
If you want to avoid these challenges, then government must equip public hospitals so that citizens get value for their taxes.
Instead of turning against hospitals when bills are high, let that be a wake-up call for all of us to demand better government healthcare.
In fact, some private facilities will even require payment before treatment or a collateral (like a land title or car card) before handling very expensive cases.
Why? To avoid the drama of detaining bodies something the public strongly condemns.
At the end of the day, none of us is safe in a country with a weak health system.
And who is responsible for building and maintaining a strong one?
Only the government. No one else.
We can be no one else but ourselves. No one else can be us. Do not expect others to understand your feelings or choices just as you may not understand those of others. The hope is that all treat our path with the respect we have earned and we try hard reciprocate that empathy.