TIME FOR CHEMOTHERAPY: The state cancer is 'eating' our health

By Rasim BELKO

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   In a system of sick values, health dies first

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The pandemic like a bogeyman, the virus like a drug, and the health system(s) in Bosnia and Herzegovina like the biggest and richest cartel in the world. 
 
They turned the old saying 'heroes are known in times of trouble' into 'champions earn in times of trouble'. So many things have happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina during these six months of pandemic life. Scandals followed one another, and systemic powerlessness and dysfunctionality were exposed to the extreme. 
 
We Bosnians and Herzegovinians are a strange people. We forget quickly, and adapt even faster. That is one of the reasons why we have been made fools of for all these years and decades. 
 
First, they illegally and unconstitutionally put us under house arrest, closed down and destroyed numerous businesses, convinced, punished, and harassed us. 

We survived that three-month apocalypse. Summer came. Some wanted to go to the sea, but without a test, they 'couldn't'. Others wanted to visit relatives in the diaspora, or have them visit, that wasn't possible either, and others lost their 'gastarbeiter' contracts...
 
In the end, it all came down to 'pay to play'. But what about those who don't have money to pay, and many are in such a situation due to the pandemic. Many have paid health insurance for years, decades, or even their entire working lives. Today, if they don't have a hundred marks in their pocket, they can't leave the country. 
 
There is no trouble in this BiH where it doesn't get dark for some and dawn for others. Profiteers and political loudmouths have jointly imposed a "health and travel tax" on us. A small price, a little over 200 KM. A few months later, feigning concern, they reduced the prices to 140 and 160 KM. And all of this in private clinics, for the enrichment of those who have privatized our healthcare. 
 
Testing is crucial for curbing the coronavirus, or so we were told from the top of the global health pyramid down to our local experts. But why then do we pay for tests that stop a global pandemic? Why isn't it free? 
 
For every citizen who legally worked or is working, health contributions were paid. For those who are not working, the state bears the taxes. Where have the countless millions of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, paid into health budgets by the citizens, gone? 
 
Moreover, we received numerous aid packages from various parts of the world, which included tests. 
 
One doesn't need to be very smart to conclude that the state and its health system are killing and torturing the citizens from whom both the state and the health system live. Because why would someone who has paid for healthcare their entire life have to pay 160 KM for some test today? It must and should be FREE and accessible to everyone!
 
Balkan countries have been manipulating, lying, and deceiving about the prices of medical equipment, including tests, since the beginning of the pandemic. One recognizable reason - they hide the purchase price to get a good selling price for the test. 
 
Rade Panić, president of the Union of Doctors and Pharmacists of Serbia, also believes that testing must be free. 
 
In a statement to Al Jazeera Balkans, Panić says: "The state should first take preventive measures, then identify the sick and treat them in time. The goal must be to test as many people as possible, which certainly includes citizens who want to be tested at their own request. Instead, we have the opposite practices in the Balkans because states are trying to make money, and many patients with symptoms of the disease remain untested.".
 
Testing in public health institutions in BiH is a separate story. It is not uncommon for people to disappear from the system from registration to testing. But politicians are tested more often and, of course, for free. 
 
There are indeed many examples. Some are given therapy even though they have no symptoms or confirmation that they are COVID positive, others are told they can move freely, that they are negative, and then upon their insistence, they are tested and found to be positive, thus dangerous as virus carriers. No one is held accountable or sanctioned for anti-health actions. Because letting one infected person walk around believing they are "negative" is more expensive than any test. Such a person can infect enough people in a few days to "fill" an entire isolation ward.
 
In Germany, a PCR test costs around 30 euros, which is less than the average wage of an ordinary worker, and in the state of Bavaria, it is completely free. And this is not the only example, there are many more. 
 
It is not difficult to calculate how testing could be free for BiH citizens as well. 
 
About 3.5 million people live in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although many doubt that there are even fewer of us. To procure two PCR tests for every citizen, this state would have to invest about 210 million KM. Considering the IMF tranches, by which they indebt all of us, the spending on official vehicles, representation for various political parasites, and immense waste on employed representatives, deputies, delegates, and others, this is not a large sum. 
 
A clear savings plan would allow each of us living in BiH to have the right to be tested twice a year for free. This is our right, according to European conventions, the constitution, and the law. 
 
The state must respect all these laws and protect our health. Because, imagine what a collapse would occur if every citizen started behaving like the state of BiH. If we stopped paying taxes, contributions, fees, duties...

In such a situation, the system would not last even a month. In fact, perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea. To refuse all those state levies, keep the money for ourselves, and pay for private treatment and testing.

They can sue us, but they can't arrest 3.5 million of us. More precisely, we are already imprisoned, in a system that robs us and destroys our health. And where would all sorts of people's representatives, protectors of vital interests, be then...? 
 
It is time for healthcare to return to the citizens; they pay for it and it belongs to them!

Because the budgetary cancer has been "eating" our health for too long. It's time for state chemotherapy.