When Diplomas Become Worthless

Pop quiz: What do we do when we get sick? The answer is obvious - we go to the hospital to get treated by a doctor. What allows this answer to be so obvious is the trust we have in our doctors; we trust that they have received a good education and we trust their med school diploma. But what if this diploma was actually worthless, or worse, a symbol of nation-wide fraud? 

Surprisingly, this situation exists in our world today. Let's take a small trip and travel a little east...Welcome to Indonesia, where temperatures are high, doctor wages are low, and the public healthcare system is just around corrupt. 

This issue arose from good intentions. In Indonesia, the higher your grade, the lower your medical school tuitions. At first glance, this policy seems fair. The harder you work, the less you have to pay, so what better incentive than a cheaper degree? Unfortunately, whoever created this policy overestimated the integrity of people. They failed to see that this policy actually rewards schools that take in less smart people. Over time, med schools fill with students that achieve lower grades. It may work out in the end if there was a solid national system that tested students on their medical knowledge before they received their diploma. However, their standards are very low. Indonesia has a chaotic public healthcare system, and it can all be traced back to one bad case of policy economics.

When it comes to education, money, and the future, it is no doubt difficult to design an effective system. This example proves that no matter how well-intentioned the policy may have been, there is almost always a way to cheat and corrupt the system. One of the causes may be that policy-makers often forget that people behave like humans. For example, for Indonesia's case, they didn't take into account that when reversed, this policy could be used maliciously. It's dangerous to assume that everybody will use the system for good; reality is, many will take advantage when they can.

One misstep in Indonesia created a public health care system that is so far away from the international standards, that doctors who only have Indonesian PhDs are not permitted to practice medicine outside the nation. To prevent these errors, when creating policies, it's important to consider multiple perspectives; failing to do so may result in a disaster. 


Source:
S.l. “Troubling Issues with Indonesia's Healthcare.” Just Landed, 26 June 2017, www.justlanded.com/english/Indonesia/Articles/Health/Troubling-issues-with-Indonesia-s-healthcare.