Why I Believe Economic Cha-Cha is Needed to Curb Exodus of Filipino Nurses
I was looking at the Facebook feeds and I found an interesting feed. It's from the Inquirer's Facebook page and I'm finding some interesting comments here. I'm really thinking about the economic ignorance of some of the comments. I won't be naming them out specifically. If I did, I'd probably have too much to mention. The level of ignorance can go with subsidies, wage increases, and better healthcare systems, but for some, when I mention open economies--it seems that somet of them are more than willing to say, "But foreign investors will invade us!" type of talk. I'm getting fed up with such kind of talk. I would like to explain how economic charter change is badly needed if we expect more Filipino workers to stay in the country.
One article I wrote some time ago was the myth of invading other countries through labor export and foreign investment. The proof that it's a myth is that the Philippines has been sending nurses abroad. If my estimate is right--it would be boring in the 1970s or the Marcos Years. We've been sending nurses here and there. One nurse thought he was conquering Singapore and about to turn it into a Filipino state. His name was Ed Mundsell Ello or Edz Ello for short. It was a case of total arrogance that he felt Singapore was going to be the new Filipino state. The end was that Ed was later deported from Singapore. How does that sound for conquering the world through nurses? Besides, developed countries have been receiving foreign direct investment (FDI) as part of their economic policy. Yet, they haven't become a colony for FDI. Instead, these FDI are under their authority like lessees to a lessor. FDIs are allowed to enrich themselves provided that they follow local laws which include labor laws and payment of taxes.
Why are so many taking nursing? It's because they want to go abroad. I wrote a post where I discussed about students taking certain courses so they could go abroad. One of my classmates in high school shifted from medical technology to nursing in order to go abroad. A cousin of mine took nursing in order to finally move to New Zealand. I wanted to take information technology (even if I'm not that good at math) in order to again, go abroad. I really wanted to go to the US to live the American dream for good. The brain drain is happening because the salaries abroad are much bigger than what they receive here in the Philippines. It's not just the salaries but a better healthcare system. Yet, I'm afraid some of them just don't understand the basics of how FDI would've helped them. I wouldn't be surprised if the irony that they want to work abroad but refuse to open the Philippines to FDI is the mindset of some Filipino nurses.
I think the healthcare sector should've opened years ago. The Philippines could've coped up better with the COVID-19 pandemic if it had one. Just imagine if the healthcare sector weren't restricted in terms of ownership. We may be having FDI hospitals from either neighboring countries or the West. To say that foreign-owned hospitals won't benefit the Philippines is absurd. What's the use of opening a business in another country if that business won't offer products, services, and jobs to the locals? I can't imagine if Jollibee opens in Hong Kong but will only sell to Filipinos in Hong Kong. Instead, these foreign hospitals will be tied down to rules such as registration with the Department of Health (DOH) and other necessary permits. These foreign-owned hospitals would want to employ staff from the locals.
The COVID-19 pandemic showed one thing--the Philippines should stop trying to do everything itself. Yet, I still kept meeting the arguments of people who keep saying otherwise. I still meet others who are saying that it's not going to help and the Philippines must develop on its own to get out of COVID-19. All that statement is poppycock if you think about the history of Singapore, Vietnam, and China. Please, I've read the late Lee Kuan Yew's book From Third World to First to understand it. I've reread certain chapters for better study. Deng Xiaoping even said, "It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white. What matters is that it catches mice." Would it matter if the healthcare provider was a Filipino or a foreigner? What matter is that the hospital is able to service people in the Philippines.
What would be needed is to see why the nurses move to these countries. Some Filipino nurses are getting employed in China but why not in North Korea? Why are some Filipino nurses getting employed in South Korea then again why not in North Korea? We need to look at the economic systems of China and South Korea. Though, this isn't to endorse Chinese totalitarianism either. Rather, we want to see what makes these countries able to afford higher minimum wages for nurses. The answer is with the economic policies. If there were more investors (and not just the healthcare industry) then we can certainly start to allocate taxes to healthcare services. Healthcare isn't free and it must be paid with taxes. That's why we need more investments to produce more taxes to also finance healthcare aside from other benefits.
The economic cha-cha is what is badly needed. I pretty much salute economist Andrew James Masigan when he wrote to have it pushed. We really needed that economic cha-cha years ago. Yet, it was still shot down due to ignorance. Ignorance is really not bliss in the long run. I dare compare ignorance to opium. People smoked opium back in China to forget their problems during the Opium War of China during the Qing Dynasty. Ignorance, like opium, may feel good (at first) but the consequences are anything but pleasant. It's more than time for Filipinos to stop smoking the opium of economic ignorance. It's more than time to stop sending nurses abroad at the cost of the family getting divided. What we need is economic cha-cha in order to help curb the nurse exodus.
References
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1612589/doh-urges-govt-to-stop-exodus-of-ph-health-workers
