To implement health care law, funding is only ‘half of the picture’, says expert

MANILA, Philippines — For one health expert, he said that funding for the implementation of the universal health care law (UHC) is important, but only comprises “half of the picture.”

The other half of the picture, according to the president of Asia-Pacific Center for Evidence-Based Healthcare Dr. Antonio Dans, is how such funds allocated for the implementation of the law will be spent.

“Ang pananaw po namin, sa universal health care, importante ho ang pera, kalahati lang ho ng picture,” Dans said during an online press conference organized by the COVID-19 Action Network Philippines.

(When we look at implementing universal health care, funding is important, but it is only half of the picture.)

“The other half is preparing to spend that money well,” he added.

This year, Congress has allocated P71.35 billion for the implementation of the health care law. The budget is less than half of its original budget request of P153 billion.

But because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) previously moved to postpone the implementation of the UHC law to mid-2021, saying that premium collection in 2020 fell to 90 percent.

The UHC law, signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in February 2019, aims to provide health insurance benefits to all 104 million Filipinos starting this year.

‘Not prepared’

However, Dans believes that the government is not prepared for how to spend the fund allocated for the UHC implementation well.

“We are not prepared, and this is something we can do in the months to come is [to] prepare ourselves when funds come for UHC, for the laboratory test and medicines of our patients,” he said.

Former Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial, likewise, echoed Dans’ opinion that funding is important for the UHC.

Ubial added that aside from funding, “integration of systems and integration of health units” is also important for the implementation of the UHC.

“Yung private, government [hospitals], national and local, as well as the primary care levels to the hospital level, dapat nag-uusap, nag-iintegrate (should be coordinating and integrating) so that we can address the health needs of our people,” she said.

Ubial also called for the implementation of the health care law right away, saying that it was best to start it right in the middle of a pandemic.

“Universal health care is not a destination, it’s a journey,” she said. “In order to attain our goals as specified in that law, we have to start. And what better time to start but start right now when we are facing a pandemic.”

The former DOH chief also emphasized that the health care law is “about reaching out to every Filipino and giving them the information, giving them the empowerment to know how to protect their health and what to do when they get sick.”

JE