SINCE 54.2 percent of current health expenditures were shouldered by Filipinos while the government shares only comprise 34.2 percent of the total health expenditures in 2016, Senator JV Ejercito said this would soon be remedied with the passage of the Universal Health Care before the end of the year.
He said Philippine Statistics Authority data showed that Filipinos spent additional P505.00 in 2016 for health in the same year.
“Our committee is close to wrapping-up our public consultations and will consolidate the inputs we gathered so far,” said Ejercito, chairman of the Senate committee on health and demography.
The UHC, Ejercito said, is a priority measure of the Duterte administration. He has been conducting a series of public hearing on the UHC bills. On Thursday, he went to Legazpi City for regional consultation, which he considered as a meaningful move on the part of the Senate to show its full support to the President.
The Legazpi hearing was the third to be held outside the Senate, following the ones held in the cities of Cebu and Davao last month.
“The Committee is committed to reach as many Filipinos and stakeholders as possible as we work for the immediate passage of the Universal Health Care bills. The law must be a product of our constituents’ inputs and reflective of their actual needs,” Ejercito said.
Among those who attended the public hearing were district representatives, officials from the provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays of the region as well as health officers and practitioners including barangay health workers.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also attended the hearing and presented the Department’s regional plan on local health facilities.
The senator highlighted the need for a universal health care citing the current health situation in the country.
Ejercito also lamented that fact the country lacks some 42,000 beds in public hospitals to implement the recommended one bed is to 800 population (1:800).
“In every government hospital that I visited, the persisting problem is insufficient bed capacity. In the Bicol Region alone, the current bed to population ratio is 1:1,909. However, to achieve our target, we need at least P228 Billion,” he said.
For her part, Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros filed a measure that seeks to address barriers in health governance, health human resources, regulations, service delivery, and health information that would prevent Filipinos from accessing care to help realize universal health care for all Filipinos.
Senate Bill No. 1714 or “The Healthy Pinoy, Healthy ‘Pinas Act of 2018” seeks to address the issue of the fragmentation of health care delivery system by providing a framework for the integration of the health system at the level of provinces and highly urbanized cities, and by defining the minimum requirements of a service delivery network.
The measure also aims to strengthen community empowerment by emphasizing the role of community health workers in service provision, health education, health navigation, among others. It also details and delineates the roles and functions of different stakeholders within the health sector.
Hontiveros’ bill also wants to institute changes in the operations of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHILHEALTH) to enhance its delivery of benefits to all Filipinos.
“Healthcare must be our great equalizer. Its universal fulfillment will deepen our democracy and is a step towards eradicating inequality,” Hontiveros said.
“In a country where the gap between the rich and the poor remains wide, the level of healthcare service between private and public must be narrowed down. The government needs to expand the country’s healthcare infrastructure to cover the remotest towns and barangays. We need to make healthcare less intimidating by ensuring that all Filipinos, young and old, rich and poor, have financial risk protection,” Hontiveros added.
Some of the other highlights of Hontiveros’ bill are: Designation of one physician/ doctor (primary care provider) per family; Automatic inclusion of all Filipinos in the national health insurance program or PHILHEALTH, Recognition of the role of citizens’ groups and community-based groups as part of the health service delivery network, particularly in reaching the poor and the marginalized, Providing ethical guidelines in public health practice: declaration of conflict of interest, full disclosure of financial engagement with pharmaceuticals, and institutionalization of ethics committee in health-related professional societies; Expanding the role of provincial governments in ensuring public investment on health and in service delivery at the loca level; Establishment of Super Barangay Health Center through designation of primary out patient facility and primary care facility with diagnostics services and birthing facility. and Institutionalizing practice of no-balance billing (NBB) in public and private hospitals wherein government hospitals are required to allot 90% of their bed capacity for NBB while private hospitals are required to allot 10% of their bed capacity for NBB.