MANILA, NPhilippines — While the Philippines scrambled to contain the new coronavirus pandemic, attention to other deadly diseases and medical procedures had taken a backseat, such that the Washington think tank Center for Global Development (CGD) warned of a “hidden” health cost burdening Filipinos amid the crisis.
Damian Walker, nonresident fellow of CGD, together with Manila researchers Anton Paterno, Lyle Casas and Valerie Gilbert Ulep looked into claims reimbursement data of the state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) before and during the pandemic. They found that the number of claims to cover 12 “high-burden” diseases dropped as medical care focused on COVID-19.
“Except dengue fever, the number of claims of the 11 diseases examined in the study have declined precipitously but at varying levels. Alarmingly, the average total monthly claims in 2018 and 2019 have declined by more by than 100 percent for diseases such as gastroenteritis, asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), diabetes, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, pneumonia, and tuberculosis during the pandemic period,” Walker said in a CGD blog post on March 4.
Together with cancer, chronic kidney disease, and stroke, these 12 diseases covered by the CGD’s study accounted for half of the Philippines’ total disease burden, according to data of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in 2020.
“We have not observed significant recovery in the number of claims in the second and third quarters of 2020,” Walker added, use of state health insurance coverage in both public and private health facilities remained below prepandemic levels.
The PhilHealth claims data that Walker and his team analyzed covered the period January 2018 to October 2020.
Walker said while “urgent surgeries or procedures such as chemotherapy should be prioritized over less urgent, elective health care,” PhilHealth data showed “relatively stable claims for chemotherapy, but a sharp decline for cataract removal surgery.”
“This supports the anecdotal evidence that many hospitals temporarily halted or reduced healthcare services,” Walker said.
Also, Walker said “there are indications the health insurance claims for child delivery in hospitals have also declined during the pandemic,” although they had yet to find “compelling” evidence that there were more child births at home or if mothers opted to give birth elsewhere, such as maternity clinics.