Garin urges House health panel to check implementation of UHC law

Janette Garin — INQUIRER PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — A resolution asking the House of Representatives’ committee on health to investigate the implementation of Republic Act No. 11223 or the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act has been filed, to check if Filipinos were indeed deprived of timely access to new healthcare methods.

In a statement, House Deputy Majority Leader and Iloilo 1st District Rep. Janette Garin said she filed House Resolution (HR) No. 2081, urging the panel to check the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) process and other provisions which prevent “timely access to necessary healthcare innovations.”

Garin also said that the committee should check the HTA Council structure and function “as it may not consistently fulfill its mandate in an impartial and timely manner.”

“I urge the leadership of both the House and the Senate to make the amendment of UHC a priority. We must address the elephant in the room,” Garin, a former Health secretary during the time of former president Benigno Aquino III, said.

“It is vital to fortify the country’s public health system and ensure timely access to essential health interventions for Filipinos,” he added.

Furthermore, Garin said there may be a need to review whether the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is best suited to implementing the UHC Act, as there are suggestions that the Department of Health (DOH) should be the one heading the law’s enforcement.

Garin, in particular, was talking about health interventions such as medicines, vaccines, and medical devices that should no longer undergo Phase IV clinical study, as Section 34 of the UHC Act states.

“The requirement for Phase IV clinical trials under Section 34 of the UHC Act may result in significant delays in providing Filipinos access to cutting-edge medical innovations and treatments, effectively requiring that such interventions be extensively used in other countries for 5 to 10 years before being made available domestically,” she noted.

This is not the first time that Garin discussed UHC Act provisions on vaccine trials. Last October 10, Garin suggested that both Houses of Congress explore the amendment of the UHC Act — instead of changing officials within PhilHealth —  to address problems regarding the provision of health services for the people.

Garin said back then that she intended to file a resolution asking the House committee on health to review some provisions of the UHC Act, particularly supposed “killer provisions.”

The lawmaker explained that under Section 34 of the law, health interventions such as medicines, vaccines and medical devices are required to undergo a Phase IV clinical study.  However, the lawmaker noted that after the Phase III clinical trial, health interventions are already considered safe and efficacious.

READ: Garin: Healthcare law needs amendments, not change in PhilHealth chief 

“With this requirement of Phase IV, Filipinos will have no recourse but to go to other countries to gain access to any breakthrough in science. This Section 34 of UHC is just one of the many provisions deemed restrictive and detrimental to health care accessibility,” Garin’s draft resolution said.

Garin’s statement came after Senator JV Ejercito called for the resignation of PhilHealth head, for supposedly failing to “live up” to the purpose of the UHC Act.

Ejercito did not mention who the PhilHealth head was, but the state-run insurer is currently headed by president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Ledesma Jr.

“Dapat palitan na ang head ng PhilHealth for failure to live up to [the] purpose of the UHC Law being the primary agency tasked with its implementation,” he said.

READ: JV Ejercito calls for replacement of PhilHealth chief for UHC failures 

(PhilHealth’s head needs to be replaced for failure to live up to the purpose of the UHC Law being the primary agency tasked with its implementation.)

“This is really close to my heart, the budget of DOH, because as a former chair of the committee on health and also the principal sponsor of the UHC Law, very crucial of course, ang budget ng DOH and of course ‘yung PhilHealth lalo na,” said Ejercito.