One of the main concerns of the responsible caregiver/parent is to protect the health and well-being of our loved ones. And a large part of our ability to do that derives from our ability to get proper medical attention. In a SHTF situation, this is even more important. Do you know how to get professional medical after an economic collapse? Do you know what to do?

If not, you're not alone. This is a very thorny problem to work through. But we are not without a historical guide here.

There are lessons to glean from the collapse of Venezuela.

Please allow me to describe how the healthcare has been in my country the last 3 decades.

The healthcare industry started to become overwhelmed in the 1980s. Even though the percentage of doctors per 100,000 inhabitants was growing steadily (see Table 1, pag. 15), the economic happenings did not have a meaningful positive role in the world of healthcare.

Mind you, there is no recent data within the last 10 years that could be considered reliable enough to provide clear data on this issue.

This said, it would be unfair to not acknowledge the huge effort and money which was poured into the restructuring of the healthcare system. This was done with oil price over $100 per barrel, of course. Then things changed, and we're still feeling the consequences of the ransacking. Previously, we had infirmaries all over the country, called "CDI". These were announced with great fanfare and propaganda as one of the "achievements of the revolution." Many of them now closed or almost empty.