MANILA, February 2, 2013-Senator Loren Legarda today stressed the importance of the passage of a measure that would institutionalize mandatory healthcare coverage for poor families in the country.
Legarda, principal author and co-sponsor of Senate Bill 2849 which aims to amend the charter of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), said that even as the national government is doing its share to cover the health insurance needs of indigent Filipinos, a law that will institutionalize such arrangement is needed to ensure continuity of the program.
“It is encouraging that through the Department of Health’s Kalusugan Pangkalahatan, the poorest 20% of Filipinos identified in the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction have been automatically enrolled by the national government to PhilHealth. It is now the task of Congress to institutionalize this program through an amended National Health Insurance Act,” she explained.
The Senator pointed out that the bill, which was recently approved on Second Reading, mandates that an affordable and accessible healthcare coverage should be made available to all citizens and that the national government will subsidize the contributions for indigent enrollees and abandoned children.
“As we race to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, the health of the public deserves to be on top in the scheme of priorities of the government. By institutionalizing this program through the Amended National Health Insurance Act, we can extend quality and cost-effective healthcare to families in need,” Legarda concluded.
