Angara: Senate eyes increased budget for health, education in 2024

The Senate is keen on increasing the budget for medical assistance for indigent patients (MAIP), specialty hospitals, and state universities and colleges (SUCs) under the proposed P5.768 trillion budget for 2024, Senator Sonny Angara said Friday.

Angara, Senate finance panel chairperson, said this is consistent with Congress' support for budget increases in education and health items for the past four years.

In the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), the medical assistance for indigent patients was provided with a proposed budget of P22.3 billion, down from the P32.6 billion under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Angara noted that the proposed 2023 budget only contained P22.39 billion for the MAIP but through the interventions of the members of Congress, the program ended up with the final amount of P32.6 billion.

He also said Congress increased the budget for specialty hospitals operated by the Department of Health, namely the Lung Center of the Philippines, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippine Children’s Medical Center, Philippine Heart Center, and the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care to P7 billion in 2023 national budget from the proposed allocation of P4.9 billion

"We expect a similar increase in the program in the final version of the 2024 budget,” Angara said.

The senator said additional allocation for SUCs are also expected, given that it has been increased from P73.7 billion in 2020, P85.9 billion in 2021, P104.17 billion in 2022, and P107 billion in 2023.

"Similar to the health sector, we also expect increases in the budgets of the SUCs and UP once Congress is done deliberating on the 2024 NEP,” Angara said.

He said the reduction of UP system budget will be rectified and increased "by the time December comes and we’ve been through the budgetary process.”—AOL, GMA Integrated News