What is UHC?

Lunch with the Yellow Pad:

This time, I try to write differently, patterned after the Financial Times weekly column called “Lunch with the

FT,” an institution of what probably is the world’s best business newspaper.

“Lunch with the FT” is an interview over lunch that features the world’s leading figures in politics and diplomacy, economics and business, science and technology, philosophy and religion, culture and the arts, and all their subfields. What makes it engaging is that the interview digests both the ideas being tackled by the interviewee, and the food ordered by the interviewer and the interviewee. The rule is the interviewer picks up the tab.

But in this case, “Lunch with the Yellow Pad” is quite different. I wish I could describe the food, but I forgot what the food was all about, except that it was the standard buffet at the Marriott Hotel. Good enough, considering it was a free lunch. Thus, unlike “Lunch with the FT,” “Yellow Pad” did not pay for the bill. The interviewer and the interviewee were both participants in a conference on non-communicable diseases hosted by the Department of Health at the Marriott Hotel.

And unlike “Lunch with the FT,” “Lunch with the Yellow Pad” does not involve a famous personality like Carter, Kissinger, Gaddafi, Soros, Merkel, or Krugman.

The name of my interviewee is Beverly Ho. Her name has a nice ring to it, but it doesn’t ring a bell to many. So, who’s Ho? The famous Ho in my book is Uncle Ho — Ho Chi Minh. Note that Uncle Ho’s full name consists of monosyllables. My friend Boom Buencamino remarks, over fine dinner at his favorite Marco Polo hotel, that Tsinoys love to have polysyllabic first names to accompany a surname with one syllable. He cites our friend Wilfreda Lim. And I can cite Beverly Ho.

Beverly, or Bev, is a young doctor of medicine. When I met her the first time, I observed how respectful she is; she calls me Tito. And she has a girlish giggle.

Bev has decided to work at the Department of Health (DoH) to serve the people. (She graduated from the University of the Philippines, the university of the people, although her serving the people is not just the influence of her alma mater but also a product of many things in her life and environment.)

Before joining the DoH, Bev cofounded the Alliance for Improving Health Outcomes ( AIHO). AIHO’s mission is “to steer the Philippine public health system towards social and economic growth, such that it is able to provide quality health care for all Filipinos.” Bev and her colleagues’s motto, to attract young like-mined health professionals to their mission, is: “Public health is an exciting career path.”

Now, Bev is the chief of the Research Division of the DoH’s Health Policy Development and Planning Bureau. The DoH leadership has given her the task of shepherding the bill on Universal Health Care ( UHC), which the House of Representatives has passed and which the Senate will tackle soon.

I came to know Bev through Tessa Tan Torres, a long- time friend who is now coordinator of the World Health Organization’s Health Systems Financing. Bev describes Tessa as her mentor, and Tessa, according to Bev, considers me her mentor.

Tessa and her husband Ruben once hosted a late lunch for me, and we discussed UHC. My organization, Action for Economic Reforms, is known for its advocacy on tax reforms, including the sin tax legislation, which earmarked the bulk of the incremental revenue to UHC. Tessa told me to talk to Bev who is most knowledgeable about the many issues pertaining to UHC, including its financing.

And so, I interviewed Bev. Here is the interview:

Filomeno Sta. Ana III (FSAIII): Bev, please describe what universal health care or universal health coverage is.

Beverly Ho ( BH): Universal Health Coverage is defined by the World Health Organization as all people getting the health services they need without financial hardship. In the Philippines, we have been using “Universal Health Care” or Kalusugan Pangkalahatan. However UHC as an aspiration and as a program are two very different things, the latter being more focused and limited in scope, as would be