The National Health Care System

According to the World Health statistic 2008, in Cambodia, the male life expectancy average is 59, while the female average is 65. Moreover, the probability of dying under five is 82 per 1,000 live births, so I can say that the life expectancy is simply low. Firstly, we should think about the reason why our life expectancy is low. The way of living, food, environment, and of course, health care system are the main factors for our life expectancy. What kind of national health program does the Cambodian government offer to our people?

First of all, in my opinion, there are not enough hospitals, especially in the rural areas. The people there have difficulties finding a hospital in a small village. If they have a serious disease, they have to go to a city to find a big hospital. However, for people who live in the city, they are luckier than those living in the countryside because they can go to any hospital nearby when they get sick. Some national hospitals are large and have a number of doctors and nurses. The majority of hospitals receive funds donated from different institutes or organizations from abroad, such as the EU, the United States, or Japan.

However, there are some cases where illegal conduct is found in the hospitals when doctors ask patients for money before diagnosing a disease and sometimes sell the donated medicines to patients. Because of these illegal cases, the national hospitals have a bad reputation for service or staff's behavior. For rich people, they always go to a private clinic rather than a national hospital because they think that they can get a better service and will be cured faster.

In addition, a health care insurance system has not been created, so patients have to pay one hundred percent of medical treatment or medicine. It is a heavy burden for the Cambodians to pay for everything. Some people may decide not to go to the hospital to consult with a doctor even though they are sick. This is because they are afraid of the medical treatment fee, and they are frequently treated badly when they have no money to pay. I think that it is so embarrassing for us to have such a bad health care system. The payment should not be totally the citizens' burden.

However, in some countrysides, the government set up some projects to give better health care program. For example, the government built local health care facilities in a remote where the people have difficulty to go to a central hospital.

Besides the government, NGOs (Non Government Organization) do many activities to help the people who cannot afford to go to the hospital. For example, many organizations send experts on health care programs to meet the poor people or farmers who suffer from an illness, and then they deal with the problems, such as medical treatments and advices on health care programs.

Even if there are a number of organizations donating funds and giving spiritual and moral support to the poor, they still face many problems in getting a good health care system. There is a lack of medicines, health care facilities, and nurses to take care them. I think that the government should spend more money to create a national health care program, especially using the donated funds to legally help the people in need.