Funding future health needs – the cryptocurrency option.

By Divine Sewornu Dzokoto.

“Life is difficult for everybody; everyone has bad days. Everyone has trouble in their life because it doesn’t matter how rich you are: sickness and trouble and worry and love, these things will mess with you at every level of life.” – Domhnall Gleeson.

"Sickness is mankind's greatest defect". According to Georg C. Lichtenberg.

The truth is that, health is something one cannot ignore. Whether in good health or in bad health, some cannot just stop worrying. In ill health, everybody worries whether they are going to survive or not. In excellent health, some worry whether it would last forever.

It is probably for this reason that scientists have tried to find out what things to do to live healthier and longer lives. For example, there are ‘Seven Surprising Benefits Of Skipping Rope You Should Know’. ‘10 Amazing Reasons Why You Need to Sleep’, ‘8 Effective Skin Care Habits You Should Know’, ‘How To Treat Candida in Men and Women’, ‘8 Amazing Facts About Coconut You Didn't Know’, etc.

The discovery of penicillin was a turning point in healthy life. Many other successes in health and science have over the years ensured that diseases have been successfully treated, if not avoided.

However, one can also agree that in spite of advances in medicine, people still fall sick and have to spend so much to get healed. There is, for example, cancer of all kinds. There are kidney problems for which patients require dialysis every few days. In a country where the dialysis facility is inadequate, there is a big challenge. Some citizens have over the years experienced different kinds of ailments for which cash is needed for diagnosis and eventual treatment.

Thankfully, in many countries including Ghana, there is a National Health Insurance Scheme which any citizen can buy into and access free, or almost free, health care. However, we all know that not all categories of ailments are covered under the scheme in some countries.

For diseases not covered under the National Health Insurance Scheme, every citizen must pay for the treatment required. Even where the money is available, some major diseases require patients to travel outside their countries of residence. One needs, therefore, to have enough money to get treatment, especially, treatment abroad.

The destination for foreign treatment include but not limited to the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, India and, the Republic of South Africa. As an ordinary man or woman, it is not easy to afford the cost of treatment in a foreign land? Every one wishes to be free of age-related or lifestyle related diseases but not everyone is able to.

Cryptocurrency, I think can help both the poor and the rich to prepare for life's ups and downs, as far as health and ill-health is concerned.

Cryptocurrency is a new concept, just seven years old. Life may be unpredictable but cryptocurrency can cushion that unpredictability. The current value of one virtacoin is $0.000015. In Ghana, GHc5.00 can buy 50,000 virtacoins on the open market. Elsewhere, you can buy with dollars, pounds sterling, credit card PayPal, perfect money, skrill, okpay or Bitcoins.

Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, launched in January 2009. Its value has increased over the years until it is currently around $400.00. Today it may not be wise to invest in Bitcoins unless you have so much to spare. It is wiser to invest in a cryptocurrency that has a low value, like virtacoins. VirtaCoins was launched on 1st July, 2014. It has the capacity to grow in value in the not too distant future.

Cryptocurrency is not a get-rich-quick venture. In fact, it can sometimes be frustrating when the value falls and rises by the day. The good news is that its general trend is an upward movement. It took bitcoin about four years to hit over $1000.00. It is not certain how long it will take virtacoin to reach a value of $0.01 (one American cent). However long it takes, a purchase of 50,000 coins at GHC5.00 today can fetch a $500.00 street value when virtacoin hits $0.01.

Imagine that one virtacoin hits $10 many years from now. That gives 50,000 vtas a street value of $500,000. So what if it does not rise in value like is being advertised? How much does one lose? GH5.00? This is worth the experiment.

As alluded to during the discourse of this article, $500,000 can help in the effective treatment of some ailments, at least, as far as payment for medical services are concerned.

It is the conclusion of this write up that investing in cryptocurrency can serve as a future insurance in times of medical difficulties that require a lot of cash to take care of.