Solon calls for speedy passage of mandatory health care bill

MANILA, Philippines (PNA) — With the high infant and maternal mortality rates among Filipinos living below the poverty line, a young lawmaker is confident Congress will pass early this year the proposed mandatory health care coverage for all.

“A change in our health care system has become imperative to achieve effective and universal health care,” said Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara.

He said that his proposed measure (House Bill no. 87) provides for automatic enrollment of all Filipinos as opposed to the current scheme of enrollment in PhilHealth.

Angara noted that the universal health care system is one of the priorities initially included in President Benigno S. Aquino III’s first state-of-the-nation address (SONA) last year which are now in their advance stages in the House legislative mill.

Congress will open its first regular session on Jan. 17, faced with more critical items in its agenda in an effort to bolster the government’s push towards good and transparent governance.

Despite the government’s efforts to bring health care closer to the people by dispersing health workers and services especially to remote areas, Angara lamented the disparities in health outcomes still persist.

“Health inequities remain a foremost health issue in the country. The immediate and automatic enrolment of all Filipinos, to be funded by the national government through the inclusion of the required contribution in the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA), has become necessary,” he said.

Statistics as of 2006 alone shows that over 27.2 million Filipinos live below poverty line, subsisting on less than P41 per day. It is also the poorest families that have infant mortality rate of 42 per 1,000 births compared to 19 per 1,000 births of higher income groups. The same trend can also be observed in maternal mortality rates.

The Aurora solon also noted that the lowest income groups are also 1.4 times more likely to be positive for tuberculosis based on x-ray examination compared to the highest income groups.

At present, several lawmakers have also proposed for the creation of a health cost reduction program.

Reps. Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro City) and Maximo Rodriquez (Anak Mindanao party-list), authors of House Bill no. 1403, said despite the Constitutional provision providing for affordable health services to the people, “the same has become a precious commodity available only to the moneyed few.”

“Health costs have skyrocketed to such high levels that people are forced to resort to alternative medicine, rather than seek professional medical intervention,” the Cagayan de oro City solon said.

Under the measure, the Secretary of Health and the presidents and owners of highly specialized hospitals that have complete, advanced and departmentalized facilities and services shall design a demonstration program to determine the health services and equipment that can be shared to reduce the cost of health care.

Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said specialized and tertiary hospitals that would enter into cooperative agreements under the measure shall receive grant funds and tax breaks.

He said all cooperative agreements entered in accordance with the measure shall provide for the sharing of medical technology or eligible services among the entities.

Medical technology includes drugs, devices, equipment; medical and surgical procedures utilized in medical care and the organizational and support system, among others.

The Cagayan de Oro lawmaker said eligible services that may be shared under the measure are those which have high capital or operating costs.

“I believe that encouraging cooperation between tertiary and specialized hospitals shall reduce the costs of health care and achieve a more efficient delivery of medical services,” he said. –Manila Bulletin