I've encountered so many times IRL and online the frustration of patients palabas ng PF ng mga doctor. Rants like "Hindi ko naman sya nakita bakit mahal ng singil nya." or mga pay patients na nasa public hospital nagsasabi "mahal naman magsingil ni doc e sa public hospital naman sya habang yung surgeon affiliated din sya sa top private hospital." The last statement had a scar in our consultants heart kasi actually 3x times na operahan patient neuro and pedia case pa. She had her critical care training in Singapore and didn't really brag about it and just stayed at the government hospital.

So anyway back to the topic. Here are the justifications for expensive PF of doctors (I've commented this on a different topic will repost here for discussion purposes):

General and Resident physician are overall overworked and underpaid. To give you a background, they have to go to ff (given na walang gap year):

After college, 4 yrs med school (20-24 y/o) = nasa 100-200k per sem ang tuition fee let's say more than 1.5 million overall stay

1 yr internship board exam (24-26 y/o) = walang sweldo. Free labor or sa iba may 1k stipend.

Residency training: IM, Fammed, E-med, Pedia, Anes, Radio, Patho 3 yrs (26-29 y/o) OB, surgery, optha, ENT, ortho 4-6 yrs (26-32 y/o) Fellowship (cardio, throacic, pedia neuro, endo, interventional) = 2-3 yrs

Di naman makaka establish ng private practice agad agad after residency. Yung sweldo sa residency depende pa kung private or public. Sa private nasa 15-25k per month mga sweldo 24-48 hrs ang duty minsan extended pa. Madalas they brag how many days wala silang ligo. May pasok pag weekends and holidays.

So technically at the age 30s saka pa lang sila makaka start ng financial journey nila kaya madaming doctor late na nagkaka anak at matandang doctors na di nagreretire dahil wala naman force retirement sa field namin. Unlike sa non medical field na 20s palang nakaka milyon na. Di kami nakakaipon ng emergency fund during residency.

Malalaman nyo naman pag ang PF is overpriced na minsan based sa room rate x days or philhealth or kung gaano ka complicated ang case. Tsaka pwede din naman humingi ng discount. Sabihin sila na "BUDGET MEAL" and they will understand. Hingi ka discount alam na namin yun pag ganun.

Dagdag pa pala kapag HMO late magbayad sa mga doctors din kaya di lahat ng doctor nagpapa affiliate sa HMO kasi "lugi".

Kung sa gov hospital charity case naman walang PF na yun since fix na sweldo nila bigay ng government. Kaya maganda nalang mag trabaho sa government para wala ka nalang din marinig. Matiis lang 60-70k monthly (depende sa position) okay na pang kain sa pamilya.

We also have our oath to have our PF waived for immediate family members pero di sya 100% nasusunod. Minsan hinihirit pa sa extended family, minsan din discounted or wala talaga. Pero tanggapin nalang namin.

Sa buhay doctor kung wala kang connection, mahirap. Walang nagugutom pero wala din yumayaman from scratch. Yung mga mayaman na doctor baseline mayaman na talaga sila or middle class to rich.