Senate, House ratify Universal Health Care bill

The Senate and House of Representatives ratified yesterday the Universal Health Care (UHC) bill, a priority legislation that seeks to cover all Filipinos with health insurance while upgrading government medical facilities.

Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito, principal sponsor and author of the measure, said he hopes President Duterte will sign the landmark measure into law before Christmas.

“Under the UHC bill, each Filipino will no longer worry if they or a member of their family will get sick because we will improve and strengthen the delivery of health services, especially for geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas,” Ejercito said.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, co-author of the measure, said improving the benefit packages under the bill entails the inclusion of preventive and promotive health services in a bid to alleviate the chances of confinement and encourage a healthy lifestyle among Filipinos.

As of 2016, 91 percent or 93 million Filipinos are covered by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth). About half of them are indigents while the rest are composed of paying individuals from both formal and informal economies and lifetime members.

The UHC will get funding for the health care programs from the incremental collections from the Sin Tax law; 50 percent of the national government share from the income of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.; 40 percent of the Charity Fund from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office; as well as contributions from PhilHealth and appropriations with the Department of Health (DOH).

The funds shall be transferred to PhilHealth and would be used to improve its benefit packages.

The DOH, in coordination with PhilHealth, may also request Congress to appropriate supplemental funding to meet the targeted milestone of the UHC law, he said.