Lawmaker seeks free medical care for indigent women

Las Piñas City Rep. Camille Villar has filed a bill seeking to provide free medical care to indigent women who are ill or injured as a result of violence and abuse. Villar filed House Bill (HB) No. 5243, or the Women’s Medical and Hospitalization Benefits Act, which was referred to the House committee on health. Villar said HB 5243 seeks to “grant free medical and hospitalization benefits to indigent Filipino women suffering from women’s diseases, illnesses and injuries due to violence and abuses through the establishment of a special ward in provincial and district hospitals.”

—Jeannette I. Andrade