No delay in the implementation of Universal Health Care as it is on schedule, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has said.
At the budget presentation of the Department of Health at the House of Representatives last week, lawmakers expressed concerns about the inclusion of only 33 provinces and cities under the department’s UHC Integration Sites Program for the development of local health service provider networks.
However, Duque explained the development of these provider networks was only one of many prescribed reforms under the government’s signature UHC Program.
“The UIS Program is not the be-all and end-all of the UHC Program,” said Duque.
Although it is a critical step to address fragmentation in the health system, he said the UIS Program was only one of the many reforms.
“Let us not confuse or equate UIS with UHC. Non-selection of an area in the UIS for 2020 does not mean that UHC will not be implemented at all in a certain area next year,” Duque said.
One key reform under the UHC Program which Duque expects to be completed by next year is the mandatory enrollment of all Filipinos in the National Health Insurance Program of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.
“Right now, we are at 98 percent enrollment. We expect to achieve 100 percent enrollment by the end of the first year of UHC implementation,” Duque said.
Once 100 percent enrollment is achieved, the individual-based medical services which PhilHealth reimburses or pays for will become available to all Filipinos at all PhilHealth-accredited facilities nationwide.
“When we are all members of PhilHeatlh under the UHC, lahat we will all benefit from this,” Duque said.
Duque also defended the progressive rollout approach to the UIS Program.
He said the rollout of the UIS Program was nationwide in scope but progressive in approach.
He said this was the most reasonable and cost-effective approach to ensure that local health care provider networks would offer quality services efficiently and transparently.
The Health chief also pointed out that every geographical area of the country was well represented under the 2020 UIS Program: 13 integration sites are located in Luzon, 10 in Mindanao, 8 in Visayas, and 2 in the National Capital Region.
He said the 2020 UIS site map represented a fair and equitable distribution of DOH resources for this program.
“We have to remember that the transitory provisions of the UHC Act are clear when they provide for a six-year transition period for the integration of local provider networks into provincial and city health systems,” he said.
“We cannot demand the complete integration of over 100 provincial and city health systems overnight when the law clearly provides for a realistic six-year period to accomplish this,” he added.