Ubial says gov’t underinvestment is the problem in PHL health system

Former Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Ubial on Thursday said that the problem with the country's health system is the "underinvestment" of the government.

In an interview on ANC, Ubial said that the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is hounded by problems such as the low collection from the national government and private sector.

"There's a lot of issues to be resolved in PhilHealth. I'm not saying that the previous administration did a bad job out of it but there were issues in PhilHealth that were beyond the control of PhilHealth, like number one, collecting from national government," Ubial said.

"Number two is some of the like health facilities and the doctors were actually committing fraud and we ran after them, we tried to clean up the system," she said.

"Number three, is probably the low collection efficiency in PhilHealth. Even private companies, they have very low remittances for the employees. Around 76 percent I believe is the collection efficiency," she added.

"So all that, added up together, but I won't say that PhilHealth is on the red. It is really break-even. But we have instituted measures and I presented that to the Cabinet to actually put it back on track," she continued.

The Commission on Appointments on Tuesday rejected the appointment of Ubial. The decision was reached through a secret voting in an executive session.

Ubial is the fifth Cabinet official appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to be rejected by the CA. The other four are Agrarian Reform  Secretary Rafael Mariano, Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, and Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr.

Meanwhile, Ubial said she told Duterte and Cabinet members the problem of "underinvestment" in the health system.

"Our per capita expenditure for health in 2015 where we had a very low budget was $130 per capita but that includes the private sector. Now our next door neighbor Thailand is $300," Ubial said.

"Cuba, I went there, the health system, they don't have very beautiful hospitals. It's rustic, it's very basic. But they have one doctor for every 1,000 population. Their per capita expenditure on health is $460," she added.

Ubial said she is completing her "467-days report" to be submitted to the President. She added that the Department of Health's Philippine Health Agenda for 2016-2022 is one of her biggest accomplishments as Health Secretary.

"We're writing my 467-days report to the President. I would like to make that report to the President and the Filipino people and I think the biggest accomplishment not just biggest there are several, but...it's our strategic plans," she said. —Marlly Rome Bondoc/KG, GMA News