Commodification of health: a critical analysis of the creeping privatization of the Philippine General Hospital.

Abstract

The right to the highest attainable standard of health has long been recognized and established as a fundamental human right. It is ultimately the state’s responsibility to ensure that this right is respected, protected, promoted and fulfilled. However, in an age of neoliberal globalization, health is increasingly treated not as a basic human right, but as a commodity to be profited from. In line with the government’s privatization thrust, health has been drastically reduced into a tradable product while delivering medical care has been transformed into a huge business. The country’s public health care system is under serious attack—not only by profit-oriented enterprises, but the government itself. Amidst the country’s worsening health situation, with millions of Filipinos suffering and dying from largely preventable and curable diseases, state appropriations for health and public hospitals continue to decline. Accordingly, resource generation and cost-cutting have become the major focus of cash-strapped government hospitals, including the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Such measures lay a heavier burden on low-income families—perpetuating the grave inequalities between the few rich and the many poor.