I’ll never forget what the EMT told me that night:

“The patient died on their way to another hospital, Doc.”

It was only thirty minutes after I received the referral—a multiply injured patient from a hit-and-run. In the chaos of emergency medicine, that moment crystallized a painful truth: in the Philippine healthcare system, Patient X—who has no one, and no resources—has alarmingly slim chances of survival.

Even those of us within the system know how overwhelming the costs can be. I’ve heard my kin say, “Health is expensive these days,” and I’ve swallowed that frustration more times than I can count.