35,000 indigents get health insurance cards in Rizal

MANILA, Philippines—The provincial government of Rizal has distributed health insurance cards to around 35,000 poor residents from 14 towns of the province as part of its effort to improve the people’s access to quality health services.

In a statement, Rizal Governor Casimiro Ynares III announced Sunday that through the program, the poorest of the poor would have a wider access to medical services and could avail themselves of discounted hospitalization rates at the accredited hospitals of the Philippine Health Insurance (PhilHealth).

The recipients had been identified based on a survey conducted by the National Statistics Office determining the poorest families of the province, Relly Bernardo, public information officer of Rizal province, said over the phone.

The local government has also enrolled in the health insurance coverage the barangay (village)m health workers and farmers under its sponsored program.

Bernardo said the local and the national government have shouldered the P1, 200 Philheath premiums for the indigent.

The distribution of the health cards should have been completed in 2010 as part of the Philhealth’s goal to provide health insurance to 85 percent of the country’s population by 2010. But because of lack of funds, the provincial government only made it recently, Bernardo said.

Apart from the distribution of Philhealth cards, Ynares said they had committed to do regular medical and dental missions, and distribute free medicines particularly in identified poverty-stricken areas in the province.

Ynares also announced that the renovated Rizal Provincial Hospital – Angono Annex (formerly Angono General Hospital), now with improved facilities and infastructure, was recently opened to public.