Ejercito bill ensures health care for all

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent .

SEN. Joseph Victor Ejercito yesterday said he was optimistic that the Senate would pass on final reading the Universal Healthcare Bill, a measure that would ensure health insurance coverage for all Filipinos, next week before the Senate goes on recess.

“It’s scheduled for third reading. All Filipinos would benefit from this. It ensures 100 percent coverage. As long as one is a Filipino, he will be automatically covered,” said Ejercito, author of the bill.

The bill combines the funds set aside for medical assistance by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Philippine Gaming Corp., Department of Health, and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. for a bigger and strategic distribution of health aid.

Ejercito said over 100 million Filipinos would automatically have access to the National Health Insurance Program as direct or indirect contributors next year.

He said the proposed measure is aimed at bringing down the medical costs, including  “out-of-package expenses” of citizens.

The senator was in the city yesterday to grace the three-day national convention of the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines being hosted by the capitol.

Before proceeding to the convention venue, Ejercito visited the state-owned Northern Mindanao Medical Center and inspected the hospital’s ongoing expansion project.

There, NMMC chief Jose Chan said the hospital needs an additional P300 million to increase its bed capacity.

The NMMC has a bed capacity of 600 but Chan said it has increased to 800 confined patients a day.

Chan said the NMMC also needs to hire 300 more health personnel, including physicians and nurses, and upgrade its medical equipment.

Ejercito, for his part, said the NMMC’s needs are among the many reasons why the Senate health committee strongly opposed moves by the Duterte administration to slash the health department’s budget for 2019 by some P20 billion.

“We are fighting to have the health budget restored because we need to upgrade our facilities and enhance our health program,” he said.

Ejercito said the bill will address the lack of hospital beds in state medical facilities. During the course of committee hearings, the Department of Health reported the government lacks over 42,000 hospitals to achieve its goal of one bed is to 800 population (1:800) ratio.

The proposed measure also seeks the creation of the National Workforce for Health to improve the delivery of services publicly owned or led medical facilities as well as grant health worker higher compensation, Ejercito said.

The bill also expanded the service coverage and strengthened the preventive and promotive aspects of health service.

In a press statement, Ejercito said, “Our primary objective is to guarantee equal access to quality and affordable health services for each Filipino, along with ensuring that such will not be a financial burden.”

Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), he said the health expenditure of each Filipino rose by 8.7 percent in 2016. This means each Filipino spent more than P6,345 for his or her health that year compared to P5,840 in 2015.

Ejercito however said since the data was per capita, it does not really capture the burden of individual Filipinos, especially on families are hit with really heavy medical expenditures with members suffering from serious illnesses.

Of the total health expenditures, 54.2 percent of P342 billion are shoulder by families while only 34.2 percent or P216 billion are paid for by the government in 2016.

With the Universal Health Care Bill, each Filipino can save some P7,000 or more annually in expenses, depending on one’s ailment or condition, Ejercito said.