Singelberg Clinic

One out of two Belgians have a chronic illness

• Thursday, October 27, 2011

Half of the Belgians claims to suffer from  at least one chronic illness. They are satisfied with the quality of healthcare but wonder whether they can continue to pay it. This year  39 percent postponed a  doctor’s visit  because they thought the  treatment was too expensive.
The figures come from a survey by consulting firm Deloitte. It questioned 1,000 Belgians on their  health. Less than half the respondents said they are  in good health. Half say that they suffer from at  least one chronic disease. That means that the belgians are at the  'top' of the countries surveyed.

"It's a global phenomenon," says Jan Demaeseneere, professor of family medicine and primary care at Ghent University. "Even in Africa, chronic diseases are the biggest killer by 2020."

The reasons are multiple. We get older, we pay the toll of our lifestyle - smoking, obesity, environmental - and medicine is a victim of its own success. Thus, an infectious disease like AIDS became a chronic disease.

"It makes prevention and coaching  increasingly important, but our system works  in the opposite manner. Only when we have a problem, we solve it and we go to the doctor, "says Hans Debruyne Deloitte Belgium.

The majority of Belgians is very pleased with the belgian health system, but the cost of care is a  concern. Thus the economic recession forced  two on three Belgians to change their health expenditure.

39 percent chose not to visit a doctor when sick or wounded, because they thought the  treatment was too expensive.

"That's a lot," says Demaeseneere. "But it is similar to what we learn from other studies: more and more people have problems to their health expenses."

Four in ten consumers who need medication are switching to generic alternatives to save money. Six in ten said to be limited in its ability to spend money on essential things in the household - such as housing, food, fuel, education - through their monthly health care costs.