13.7-M poor families now covered by health insurance, says health chief

MANILA — Health Secretary Dr. Enrique Ona on Monday said that the number of indigent families enrolled under the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is now at 13.7 million.

In a briefing held at the Department of Health-National Capital Region (DOH-NCR) office in Mandaluyong City, Ona said that from 5.2 million poor families recorded in 2012, PhilHealth has more than doubled the number of its members.

“The number of poor Filipinos- who we consider the poorest of our people, are now covered by PhilHealth through a subsidy from the national government,” he said.

Ona was also delighted to announce that since the DOH was starting the year with a bigger budget of P87.1 billion, wider health coverage will be provided for all Filipinos.

“We are paying for a lot of hospital care with No-Balanced-Billing,” the health chief said.

Under PhilHealth’s No-Balance-Billing scheme, sponsored members confined in government hospitals will not be required to shell out for hospitalization.

Many individuals were able to receive treatment from the NBB scheme such a five-year-old boy who was treated for dengue and a pandesal vendor’s wife who was treated from endodermal sinus tumor (EST) or yolk sac tumor (YST) last year. –Azer N. Parrocha, Philippines News Agency