Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go yesterday said that the rising costs of healthcare in the country may further be worsened with increasing medical inflation that would cause higher out-of-pocket expenses outside of government-assisted health benefits such as the Universal Health Care Act or the Malasakit Center Act which he has been lobbying for in the Senate.

In his sponsorship speech for Senate Bill 1076 or the Malasakit Center Act, Go cited data from a Mercer Marsh study that medical inflation rate “will outpace actual inflation in the country and is projected to rise to 13.7 percent, making the Philippines’ medical inflation rate the second highest in the ASEAN Region next to Vietnam’s 14.2 percent.”

This is alongside of the fact that in 2017, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that out-of-pocket payment accounted for 55 percent of health expenditures despite the safety nets already provided by Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

“The benefits under the Universal Health Care rely on health benefits package as determined by the PhilHealth. As such, out-of-pocket expenditures may still arise if the benefit packages are not enough to cover the medical needs of indigent and poor patients,” Go said.

Earlier this year, President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act 11223 or the “Universal Health Care Act,” in effect making all Filipino citizens members of the National Health Insurance Program or PhilHealth.

However, Go said that the Universal Health Care Act is still into transition.

“Thus, the reality remains that there will still be a need for medical assistance, and financial support for patients. We aim to fill that gap through various assistance offered by various government agencies,” Go said.

He reiterated that it is the aim of the Malasakit Center to mitigate such costs specially for the indigent and financially incapacitated members of society who can only afford the health services of public hospitals.

“This bill aims to provide medical and financial assistance to indigent and financially incapacitated patients through a one-stop shop called Malasakit Center, and ensure that patients experience and receive compassion, respect and empathy or “malasakit” in the availment of health services,” Go said.

Under the bill, it aims to institutionalize the Malasakit Centers to be established in public hospitals.