JV seeks UHC budget boost

JV seeks UHC budget boost | Daily Tribune

To backstop President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) vow for a zero-balance billing for Filipinos at Department of Health (DoH) hospitals, Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito would push for the allocation of an additional P74.4 billion subsidies for the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to pave the way for the full implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act.

During his fourth SoNA on 28 July, Marcos stressed that the government should already fund basic accommodation at DoH hospitals. In other words, patients will not have out-of-pocket expenses.

“We have continued the zero-balance billing. It’s free. This means that for basic accommodation services in our DoH hospitals, the patient will no longer have to pay anything because their bill has already been paid,” he said.

Where’s extra revenue?

In a chance interview, Ejercito said the additional budget may be sourced from “extra revenue of the government.”

With the government stuck in deficit spending, with a shortfall of P765.5 billion in the first half, the extra funds to cover the budget supplement will have to be sourced from new borrowings or by scraping extra money from the already embattled government-owned and controlled corporations.

“My call to my colleagues in Congress and to President Marcos is to pass the supplemental budget for PhilHealth immediately,” he said in a statement.

“Let’s fund it now to ensure that patients in DoH hospitals will not have to pay even a single centavo for basic accommodation,” he added, warning that the promises of UHC risk being diluted without urgent government action.

“Since it is a supplemental budget, it may be sourced from the extra revenue of the government because it is for services. I don’t think it would cause any harm, as our goal is to access health services. It is still up for the directive of the President,” he said.

Medical assistance will be augmented through the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, and by the allocation to DoH hospitals, the President said.

The assistance is in addition to the financial support from PhilHealth, which is the agency tasked to implement the UHC.