| PhilHealth
establishes strategic alliances with the provinces toward
universal coverage
In
its effort to provide social health insurance to all Filipinos,
particularly to that segments of society that do not have
the capability to pay, PhilHealth in collaboration with the
League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) conducted a series
of Governors Forum last May with the theme: “Option
for Recovering Health Care Cost and Improving Hospital Income
at the Provincial Level”.
A total of 71 out of 81 provinces have attended the series
of forums and actively participated during the discussions,
38 of which were governors and the rest were official representatives
ranging from Vice Governors, Provincial Administrators, Provincial
Health Officers and others that were directly involved in
the implementation of the program in their respective provinces.
Delegates
from various foreign funding agencies such as the Capacity
Building International Germany (InWent), World Bank (WB),
and German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) were likewise present
during the forum.
The forum aims to achieve the following objectives: to share
best practices of the various provinces in the implementation
of the NHIP with the end view that other LGUs would be encouraged
to increase budgetary allocation for the enrollment of indigent
families in their locality or attain universal coverage; to
present to the Governors on how NHIP augments the LGU in financing
the delivery of its health care services especially to its
poor constituents; to identify ways to expand LGU’s
health services through the improvement of health facilities;
and to gather views and opinions, issues and concerns on the
implementation of the Sponsored Program.
Governors
of provinces that have attained universal coverage and maximized
their hospital income thru the program were invited to share
their experiences in the successful implementation of the
Sponsored Program that would eventually improved the public
health care delivery system, which is the primary objective
of the government’s Health Sector Reform Agenda (HSRA).
These speakers consisted of Gov. Oscar S. Moreno of Misamis
Oriental, Gov. Victor A. Yap of Tarlac, Gov. Jose Ma. Rubin
R. Zubiri of Bukidnon, Gov. Felipe Hilan A. Nava of Guimaras,
Gov. Rogelio J. Espina of Biliran, Board Member Renato Peralta,
in lieu of Gov. Michael Keon of Ilocos Norte and Vice Gov.
Alex Calingasan, alternate of Gov. Zubiri for the third batch.
The
first of the three batches were held on May 9, 2008 at the
Crown Regency Hotel, Makati. It was participated in by 18
out of 23 invited provinces in North Luzon area, 11 of which
were governors and 7 official representatives. On the other
hand, the succeeding two batches for the Mindanao and South
Luzon and Visayas areas were conducted at the Heritage Hotel
Manila on May 22 and 30, 2008 respectively. The attendance
rate of the provinces, particularly the governors, had improved
significantly in the remaining two batches. As a matter of
fact, the last batch was able to register a 100% attendance
rate.
PhilHealth
believes that it would be worth the effort to establish closer
alliances with the provinces considering that they are the
owner of health care facilities in the area where most of
the people seek medical care, specifically the indigents.
In
her speech, Ms. Lorna O. Fajardo, PhilHealth President and
CEO, mentioned that the Philippine Congress has allotted for
this year the amount of 4.5 Billion in the 2008 General Appropriations
Act (GAA) representing the national government share in the
annual premium of enrolled families.
In
accordance with Republic Act 7875 of 1995 as amended by Republic
Act 9241, the Sponsored Program is implemented in partnership
with the local government units (LGUs) through its Local Chief
Executives (LCEs). The LGU and the national government share
in the payment of premium contribution per family based on
the LGU’s income class. (Melody Gabuya/Philhealth)
| Governors
Forum on Philhealth |
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