SAN
FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga-Ferdinand De Mesa, 34, from Betis in Guagua town,
Pampanga works as a wood carver. Recently, his two-year old son Cyril was
hospitalized due to bronchitis. But he didn’t have pay a single peso for
medical fees as he is enrolled as a sponsored member of the Philippine Health Insurance
Corporation (PhilHealth).
“Luckly,
I was enrolled to PhilHealth as our family is among the beneficiaries of the
Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program of Department of Social Welfare and
Development," De Mesa said. "Without this, I would not be able to pay
the P7,000 hospital bill of my son.
To
promote government's universal health program, the Department of Health along
with its partners including PhilHealth coined “Kalusugan Pangkalahatan (KP)”
which envisions that all Filipino families, specifically the indigents, will be
covered by PhilHealth by 2016.
“In
Central Luzon, we are near in attaining the goal with 74 percent of our
populace already enrolled,” said PhilHealth Vice President for Central Luzon
Rodolfo Balog.
Pampanga
has the biggest number of coverage with 86 percent of total residents followed
by Bataan and Tarlac with 82 percent each, Zambales-78 percent, Bulacan-76
percent, Nueva Ecija-59 percent, and Aurora-55 percent.
PhilHealth
is now targeting jeepney drivers, contractual employees, and vendors, where
they could be enlisted under the organized group enrollment approach.
“Even
students who are 21 years old could now be part of our insurance for at that
age, they are not dependents of their parents who are members,” Balog added.
Data
from PhilHealth reveal that there are now 490 facilities accredited by the
agency in Central Luzon consisting of 193 hospitals, 136 rural health units,
115 maternity clinics, 19 TB-DOTS, 19 dialysis centers, and eight ambulatory
hospitals.
There
are also 4,115 accredited health care professionals composed of 2,500 doctors;
1,500 specialists; 34 dentists; and 81 midwives. (Joelyn G. Baluyut)
