New PhilHealth package targets child malnutrition

The PhilHealth Local Health Insurance Office (LHIO) Caloocan. —https://www.philhealth.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), has launched its Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) Outpatient Therapeutic Care Benefit Package.

The package, said to be the first of its kind in the world, aims to address a problem currently affecting an estimated one million Filipino children aged 5 and below.

Under the new benefit, families with children suffering from SAM will receive treatment services worth P7,500 for children 0-6 months old, and P17,000 for children 6-60 months old.

READ: A call for action on malnutrition

Counseling, home visits

Under PhilHealth Circular No. 2024-0017, among the “mandatory” essential services of the SAM treatment package is the anthropometric and clinical assessment for SAM.

It also provides medical care and ready-to-use therapeutic foods, which help restore weight and treat the underlying infections affecting children with severe acute malnutrition.

Families are supported also through counseling from health professionals, who can guide them in the proper feeding of infants and young children, as well as in hygiene practices to prevent the reoccurrence of malnutrition.

Regular follow-ups through home visits will help monitor each child’s progress. Referrals for inpatient care are available for children with medical complications and require more specialized care.

‘Right to a healthy start’

“These packages are PhilHealth’s support to the government’s effort to fight malnutrition in the country. With these, we may help reduce the developmental and medical impacts of malnutrition to the children and their families,” PhilHealth president and CEO Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Every child, whoever they are and wherever they live, has the right to a healthy start in life, and no family should be held back by financial barriers when it comes to lifesaving treatment to overcome malnutrition,” said Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov, the Unicef representative to the Philippines.

Considered one of the most critical global health concerns, SAM affects at least 19 million children worldwide and accounts for 400,000 deaths each year.

Based on Unicef data for the East Asia and Pacific region, the Philippines has the second-highest incidence (after Indonesia) of child wasting or being underweight, with around 800,000 cases or 16.44 percent of the total number of children aged 5 and below.