Increases in medical bills are outpacing the general inflation rate each year. That raises the question whether healthcare is reserved only for those who can afford it

“I got the bill for my surgery. Now I know what those doctors were wearing masks for”
- American bureaucrat, James H. Boren (1925)

WHAT is the value of a human’s health? Sixteenth-century English scholar and vicar at Oxford University Robert Burton put it at such: “Restore a man to his health, and his purse lies open to thee.”

That denotes that health is priceless, and almost everyone would pay anything to get well. (But why people does not pay to stay healthy? Aren’t human weird?)

With the doctors’ power to demand, medical services do not come cheap.

And with the continuous rise of investments in research and development as well as the adoption of the latest technologies to deal with the rapid emergence of new and complicated illnesses (and the re-emergence of some deadly ones), healthcare costs are soaring by the day.

So, who can afford to fall sick these days?

Across the world, the increases in doctors’ bills are outpacing the general inflation rate each year. It is estimated that the global medical inflation averages about 10% each year.

In Malaysia, medical inflation is estimated to be around 15% each year. That is to say, a simple appendicitis surgery that cost RM1,800 three years ago will set you back by about RM3,000 today.

Excerpt from TheStarBiz

Given a choice, would you rather detect your cancer at stage 0 and 1 OR stage 2 and above? Who can you blame when your doctor tells you ‘I’m sorry, but this is stage 4″?

It is say that your life is fated. Yes it is, we can’t stop earthquake or other catastrophe from happening. But if you can detect the disease early and you disregard screening as important in the first place, is this called fate?

No, it’s a result from your own ignorance, who can we blame when we put ourselves to suffer which results in suffering to family members, kids and relatives too?

Make it a point today to schedule for your yearly comprehensive health screening. You can’t be too busy for that. What is more important that your own health? If you never set priority for your health, it could be too late when you discover it.

Cancer is curable, but again it depends on the stage of the disease. The earlier you detect it, the higher your chances are and the lower the costs involved.

The irony is that most people do not seem to give this much thought when they feel no pain. Even if there’s a certain discomfort, we usually like to shrug it off as ‘normal’ symptoms. But the truth is once you feel something is wrong, 80% of the time it’s already too late.

“Colon cancer, nasopharyngeal (nose and throat) cancer are very curable types of cancer when you detect it early, and even lung cancer can be cured if you catch it in the early stages,” says Dr Low.

But if you are looking for proof of progress in the survival time of cancer patients, you do not have to look further than lung cancer.

“Lung cancer used to be fatal, once you get it, within a year you’ll die,” says Dr Low. “If you receive chemotherapy you’ll probably live for eight months to a year, but if you don’t, you could probably only live for six months,” he says.

Excerpt from TheStar.

So… go screen and do it the right way. The first unavoidable cause of cancer is being born. Yes, you can’t deny that.

Would you rather be safe today than be sorry tomorrow? You decide:

(just click on the picture to enlarge it)

Extract from TheStar:

Chronic open-angle glaucoma

THIS is the commonest form of glaucoma in most countries and affects the middle age and older population. Relatives of people with this form of glaucoma have a higher risk of developing this disease due to its hereditary tendency. People who are short-sighted are also at risk, says consultant ophthalmologist Dr Chuah Kay-Leong.

This type of glaucoma progresses slowly and often goes unnoticed for years. This is because it does not affect the straight-ahead vision and reading vision until the end stage. A gradual loss of night vision and side vision also occurs.

This condition responds well to glaucoma eye drops but in a few cases, surgery is required to provide an additional drainage channel for the eye fluid to relieve the eye pressure.

Acute or angle-closure glaucoma

This is the commonest type of glaucoma among the Chinese. “It affects the middle age and elderly, especially women. There is a sudden severe increase of pressure in the eye, resulting in permanent blindness if the eye pressure is not brought down promptly,” says Dr Chuah.

Unlike chronic glaucoma, this form of glaucoma is associated with very dramatic symptoms such as severe pain in the eye, loss of vision, redness, seeing haloes around lights, headache and vomiting.

Congenital glaucoma

This occurs at birth and is rare. Dr Chuah says symptoms such as enlargement of the baby’s eyes, tearing and sensitivity to light are warning signs to parents that their baby needs a full ophthalmologic examination.

Secondary glaucoma

This glaucoma is caused by pre-existing conditions in the eye. For instance, inflammation of the eye, tumours, eye surgery, injuries or mature cataracts can all cause fluid to be retained in the eye, causing high pressure to build up.

The Star:

More young Malaysians below 40 are at risk of getting heart attacks due to a poor diet and an unhealthy lifestyle, said Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (PPUKM) cardiology unit head Assoc Prof Dr Oteh Maskon.

He attributed this to the craving for teh tarik, roti canai, nasi lemak and smoking, as well as a lack of exercise.

They are at risk from obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes which lead to heart ailments, he told reporters after attending a public forum on heart disease at PPUKM here Friday.

He said 5% of 450 patients admitted to PPUKM in the past one year were below 40 and most of them were diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes.

Dr Oteh said the youngest heart patient at PPUM was a 23-year-old male with metabolic syndrome and a family history of heart disease while a simple heart surgery was conducted on a 29-year-old male.
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