Lacson: Next admin should prioritize funding UHC by P84B

The next administration should prioritize addressing the P84-billion funding gap for the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act, presidential aspirant and Senator Panfilo Lacson said Monday.

In a statement, Lacson said providing adequate funding for the implementation of the UHC will prevent hospitals from disengaging with the state health insurance system, emphasizing that the public will suffer from its consequences, especially amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Kami, sa aming isang programa, siyempre, uunahin ‘yung pandemya pa rin. Meron tayong Universal Health Care Act [na] naipasa [noong] 2018... Hanggang ngayon hindi pa fully funded [kahit] kaya naman. Ang full implementation nito nasa mga P257-billion [pero] ang nilagak na pondo para sa 2022, P173-[billion] lang,” Lacson was quoted as saying.

(Our primary program, of course, is to address the pandemic. We have a Universal Health Care Act that was passed in 2018... Until now it is not fully funded, although it can be. Its full implementation is worth P257 billion but the fund allocated for it in 2022 is just P173 billion.)

The lawmaker made the remark after reports on several hospitals cutting ties with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) over billions of unpaid claims.

The presidential aspirant said he would make this as a priority as he noted that the implementation of the UHC law is “crucial” for the country to strengthen its COVID-19 response.

Should the government fund the UHC Law correctly, he said all barangays in the country would be covered and the government will achieve a one hospital bed for every 800 population ratio.

He lamented that in 2020, the poorest regions in the Philippines such as the Region IV-B or the MIMAROPA, still has the ratio of one hospital bed per 10,000 population.

This, he said, is way below the proportion of one bed for every 1,000 people as prescribed by the World Health Organization.

Furthermore, the lawmaker reiterated his suggestion to designate the secretary of the Department of Finance as the chairman of the PhilHealth board instead of the Health secretary.

“‘Yung PhilHealth, ‘di ba, insurance ‘yun as the name suggests. Pero bakit ang ex-officio [chairman ay Health] secretary? Hindi ba dapat nasa DOF? Insurance e, [so] more financing than health, kaya nagkakaloko-loko. Ang daming anomalya,” Lacson said.

(PhilHealth, isn’t it an insurance [company] as its name suggests? But why is the ex-officio the DOH [Department of Health] Secretary? Shouldn’t it be under the DOF? It’s insurance, so it is more financing than health, that’s why it’s all messed up. It has so many anomalies.)

“Nagrerebelde na ‘yung mga ospital sa Iloilo. Nag-wi-withdraw na sila ng membership sa PhilHealth. What if ‘yung mga hospital lumabas sa PhilHealth? [Ang] mahihirapan [ay] ‘yung mga kababayan natin,” he pointed out.

(The hospitals in Iloilo are rebelling. They are withdrawing their membership from PhilHealth. What if other hospitals leave PhilHealth? Surely our countrymen will suffer.)

On Monday, Private Hospitals Associations of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI) President Dr. Jose Rene De Grano announced that some major medical facilities in the country are eyeing to observe a  five-day “PhilHealth holiday” where deductions for health services will not be accepted.

This, after seven hospitals in Iloilo, as well as the Far Eastern University-Dr. Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation, decided to disengage with PhilHealth over the delayed reimbursement of claims.

Under its mandate, PhilHealth is tasked to administer the National Health Insurance Program which aims to provide health insurance coverage and ensure affordable, acceptable, available, and accessible health care services for all citizens of the Philippines.

Last month, the state insurer said it is seeking to settle the unpaid claims to private hospitals by December.—AOL, GMA News