President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s aspiration to provide free hospitalization to all Filipinos has inched closer to reality after the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) agreed to shoulder doctors’ professional fees for indigent patients.
Thus said Speaker Ferdinand Martin G Romualdez following his Wednesday meeting with PSCO General Manager Melquiades Robles and Philippine Medical Association (PMA) President Dr. Hector Santos Jr., facilitated by Deputy Majority Leader for Communications and Rep. Erwin Tulfo of party-list ACT-CIS.
“We are grateful to our PCSO General Manager for answering the grievances of our healthcare professionals, especially on the issue of professional fees,” Romualdez, leader of the 308-strong House of Representatives, said in Filipino.
Robles told Romualdez that by the end of October, the modalities for the implementation of the coverage of professional fees by the PCSO could be implemented.
“All medical practitioners will (then) be covered by the government under the auspices of the PCSO so that health care will be totally free,” Romualdez said.
“Free health care for all Filipinos, that’s what we want, and that’s what our President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said,” he added.
Expressing his gratitude for the welcome development, the Speaker vowed to continue working to improve health care for all Filipinos: “We will also continue to look at other ways and means to make health care more accessible and universally acceptable and free to all the Filipino people.”
