Makati Mayor Abby Binay on Friday shared the city’s trendsetting health programs in a meeting with Filipino community leaders in Rome, Italy, where she attended a three-day summit organized by the Vatican.

The mayor received a warm welcome from some 60 representatives of OFW communities in Rome, who applauded several times as she shared the various health care benefits enjoyed by Makatizens.

“It was an honor to have met with the leaders of our OFW communities in Rome and shared Makati’s best practices and innovations in health care," Mayor Abby said.

The mayor said she understood the reluctance of many OFWs around the world to come back to the Philippines, given the prohibitive cost of health care in the country.

"By sharing Makati's successful public health initiatives, I wanted to show them that with strong political will and genuine commitment to public service, it is possible for ordinary citizens to have unhampered and unlimited access to quality health care," she said.

She also underscored that taxes generated from the business sector, which form the bulk of the city's income, have sustained the comprehensive public health program of Makati and made way for more technology-driven innovations.

The mayor cited several health services being provided through the Yellow Card program, including subsidized hospitalization at the city-run Ospital ng Makati.

"A Yellow Card-patient's hospital bill can reach millions of pesos, but we only charge a token fee of P500," she said, eliciting enthusiastic applause from the group.

Mayor Abby also cited the free medicines being provided by the city, including maintenance medication for hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and uric acid, and heart and lung diseases, among others. She also mentioned dialysis sessions for kidney patients and insulin for diabetics among the free services available under the Yellow Card.

"Senior citizens aged 70 and above are given their full dosage of maintenance medicines monthly, delivered directly to their homes," Mayor Abby said.

She underscored that preventive health care is a top priority of the city, since treating serious illnesses would cost the city much more. She cited the continuing modernization of Makati's barangay health centers to provide topnotch primary health care, which includes an immunization program covering newborns to adults.

Recently, the city added the shingles vaccine, which costs between P8,000 to P10,000, to its list of free vaccines provided to Yellow Card holders and qualified dependents.

Aside from maintaining its full-service hospital, Ospital ng Makati (OsMak), the city also entered into a partnership with Makati Medical Center through which the city shoulders the full cost of diagnostics and therapeutics services that are not available at OsMak.

Through a public-private partnership, the Makati Life Medical Center currently provides 24/7 outpatient and diagnostic services for free to Yellow Card patients. The 360-bed hospital with modern specialty centers on cancer and heart diseases is expected to become fully operational this year. Recently, it became the first hospital in the country to acquire a digital PET/CT uMI 550 scanner that utilizes advanced Artificial Intelligence to enhance diagnostic precision by reconstructing images from comprehensive total-body data. It will be available for free to Yellow Card beneficiaries.

The city government has also put in place a digital health information management system and seamless referral system so that patients’ medical records can easily be accessed whenever they visit the barangay health center or Ospital ng Makati.

The mayor had gone on an official trip to Rome to attend the Joint Summit titled “From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience”, which was held at the Casina Pio IV, Vatican City from 15 to 17 May.

"I feel blessed for having had the privilege to engage with His Holiness, Pope Francis, during the Mayors and Governors Summit on May 16. The audience with the Pope was a crucial moment, allowing us to discuss our climate strategies and challenges in line with his call to action in Laudate Deum," Mayor Abby said.

The mayor joined fellow mayors and governors from all over the world at a global roundtable where innovative and scalable solutions for climate resilience were showcased.

"Participating in this summit and the global roundtable events offered a unique platform for mayors from around the world to come together, sharing insights and reinforcing our collective commitment to leading the charge in climate action and resilience," the mayor said.

In recent years, Mayor Abby has taken on significant roles in raising the voices of local governments in international dialogs. Currently, she is a Global Executive Committee member of ICLEI, Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance’s City Ambassador for Asia, Board Member of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy for Southeast Asia, Council Member of UCLG ASPAC, and the Vice President of CityNet.

She has also been appointed by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres as a member of his Advisory Group for Local and Regional Governments, with a special focus on promoting gender equality.

Upon the invitation of COP28 President-designate Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Mayor Abby joined the COP28 Advisory Committee as the sole representative from the Philippines and Southeast Asia. She is part of Technical Working Group 3 focusing on Climate Finance and Loss and Damage.