Senate Committee on Health Chairperson Christopher Bong Go commended the Department of Health’s Administrative Order (AO) No. 2024-0017, which removes the purchase booklet as a requirement for senior citizens to avail themselves of their 20 percent discount on medicine.
“This is a timely step to ensure that our senior citizens receive the benefits they deserve under the law. Outdated requirements should not hinder their health and rights,” he said.
Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa announced on Monday that he signed the aforementioned DOH AO, which aligns with the Expanded Senior Citizen Act of 2010.
Under this new administrative order, a valid ID and a doctor’s prescription are now the only requirements needed by senior citizens to claim their medicine discount.
“Old requirements should not be a hindrance for their health and rights,” the senator stressed.
The revised policy will benefit more than 9.2 million Filipino senior citizens in the country, according to the latest 2020 census by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Previously, purchase slip booklets were used to record medicines, their quantities, and when and where they were bought by seniors, helping drugstores monitor the last purchase made for specific medicines.
Under earlier AOs, pharmacies could not dispense more than a month’s supply of prescription medicines to senior citizens to ensure the safety and potency of the drugs purchased.
