The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) aims to treat around 600,000 malnourished children through its Outpatient Therapeutic Care Benefits Package for Severe Acute Malnutrition for children aged 5 and below.

PhilHealth, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Philippines and the Department of Health, officially launched a groundbreaking package on Tuesday, the first of its kind in the world.

“This is the first severe acute malnutrition program in the world under a national health insurance program,” Health Secretary Dr. Teodoro Herbosa said.

Under the new package, PhilHealth will shoulder the costs for nutritional counseling, the provision of ready-to-use therapeutic foods, follow-up visits, and medicines.

The state insurer will provide accredited health centers P7,500 to deliver malnutrition-related services per child aged up to 6 months. Older children aged up to 5 will each receive benefits worth P17,000.

“The Philippines is still among the top 50 countries with the highest rate of stunting and 95 children die every day due to malnutrition-related illnesses,” Herbosa said.

“It’s an intergenerational cycle that affects the physical, cognitive, and economic well-being of our nation,” he added.

Herbosa said the country faces P250 billion in economic losses each year as a big portion of its human resources become physically and mentally weak or die.

“In regions like the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the wasting rate reaches 10 percent, which is double the national average,” PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said.

PhilHealth will be accrediting urban and rural government health centers in barangays across the country since these centers are the closest to the community residents.

PhilHealth said the centers’ healthcare workers could refer patients to hospitals for advanced medical treatment.