Indigent patients may soon be able to acquire prescription drugs from private pharmacies for free should the government, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development, adopt a proposal from a House leader.

House Deputy Minority Leader Bernadette Herrera has urged the DSWD and private drug stores to enter into a memorandum of agreement to help indigent patients buy prescription medicines using guarantee letters from the social welfare agency's Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations program.

"I told the DSWD that I hoped they could reinstate the MoA not only with Mercury Drug but also with other drug stores that accept a guarantee letter," Herrera said.

During the House deliberation earlier this month on the proposed 2023 budget of the Department of Health, Herrera disclosed that she was working on a bill that would institutionalize the use of guarantee letters by indigent patients in private hospitals during emergencies.

It can be recalled that former DoH Secretary Francisco Duque III, upon Herrera's prodding, issued a memorandum order allowing indigent patients to present guarantee letters to private hospitals that have an existing MoA with DoH and DSWD.

A guarantee letter is an assurance of payment offered by the DoH, DSWD, and other concerned government agencies and institutions, including Congress, on behalf of a patient, for the portion of the hospital bill.

Herrera, who served as Quezon City's councilor in 2004, said her proposal came from her experience when she signed a MoA with Mercury Drug to allow underprivileged patients in her district to access prescription drugs purchased even with her own money.