Solid Financial Foundation...

A. Long Term and Short Term Health Care

The base of a solid financial foundation is Long Term and Short Term Health Care. Most people who are employed are given by their companies their short term healthcare. Sometimes, this will also include their family. However, not many people invest on their long term healthcare. By long term, it means a healthcare coverage beyond retirement. This is very basic and the first priority in building your financial foundation. Why is this so?


We had seen many families that went bankrupt because of a medical crisis. One of them is June; a retiree from a prestigious local company had cancer. All their lifetime savings, and properties were wiped out in just a matter of months. He even had to ask financial support from family and friends. He had to even resort to borrowing money. Finally he succumbed to the disease not because there is no cure but because he has exhausted all his resources, and his family could no longer support him. He died penniless and in debt.

Jose a seafarer, with very high pay had lots of money. Whenever he arrives from months of sailing as captain of a chemical tanker, the whole baranggay celebrates. Days of feasting and drinking for his many friends. He lived a life of a multi-millionaire. One day, he was diagnosed with heart ailment. For the first year, his company and his savings enabled him to survive. However, his resources to pay off for his medical needs and daily expenses did not last long. Worst, since he no longer can ably steer the ship, he was retired by his company. Since he is retired, he no longer is covered by the healthcare the company previously provided him. Even now, he still is below 60. But because of his heart condition, he is not taken in even on a lower post. Thus, he no longer had income, and along with that, his drinking buddies abandoned him. Worst, his wife left him alone. Now, on his late 50's, he is lonely, penniless, jobless, and cannot afford to care for his health.


Another guy we met was Juan, a very young Training Manager of one of the fast-food chain in the Philippines. Even before he reached 30, he had a stroke rendering half of his body paralysed. Like the experience of Jose, the company only took care of him on a very limited number of months. Eventually he was also asked to resign. So the short term health care he enjoyed as employee is no longer in effect. Since he did not invest on his own short and long term healthcare, he had to pay for his physical rehabilitation from his own savings, and from the help of his family. This definitely put a terrible stress in the family's finances.

Tomorrow... will continue with another story why this Long Term and Short Term Healthcare is important and is really the base of Solid Financial Foundation....