Thanks to Zero Balance Billing, around P75 billion worth of hospital bills were paid out by the government and made free for the public, the Department of Health (DoH) claimed in a statement early this week.

In an exclusive interview with DAILY TRIBUNE also early this week, former Senator Cynthia Villar urged indigent Filipinos to take advantage of free hospitalization and medications being offered by DoH-run hospitals.

“Karapatan n’yo ‘yan, binayaran natin ‘yan ng ating mga buwis, kaya gamitin natin (It’s your right, we paid with it with our taxes, so let us use it),” she said.

A DoH program, Zero Balance Billing ensures that eligible patients in government hospitals would not pay out-of-pocket costs for basic ward accommodations. Implemented in more than 80 DoH hospitals and expanding to select local government unit (LGU) hospitals, the program covers room, medicine and fees for qualified patients.

Among the DoH-run hospitals offering Zero Balance Billing is Las Piñas General Hospital and Satellite Trauma Center. Villar recalled that in 2019, she and daughter, then congresswoman Camille Villar, passed into law the conversion of the hospital from 200 to 500 beds. Then in 2021, a 12-storey building with a dialysis center offering free dialysis to the poor was built on the site.

Since the hospital is funded by the Zero Balance Billing program using the national budget, admission to Las Piñas General Hospital and any DoH-run medical institution is free even for non-residents of the city where the DoH-run hospital is in, said Villar.

“Kaya ko ‘yan ipinatayo, para sa mahihirap. Sa mayayaman, may mga private (hospitals), ‘di ba? (I had Las Piñas General Hospital built for the poor. For the rich, there are private hospitals, right?),” she said.

Apart from free accommodation, Las Piñas General Hospital provides free medicines and checkups from doctors and other medical professionals training at the hospital from the nearby University of Perpetual Help System. According to Villar, the hospital has a new medical director specializing in community health.

DoH reported that the approved 2026 budget for the department includes P1 billion for LGU hospitals and another P1 billion for the operations of four specialty hospitals. Last year, over 1.3 million patients did not have to pay hospital bills, totaling to P74.65 billion of total bills from July to December.