Tags: Administration, Government Offices
By Anna Valmero
MANILA CITY, METRO MANILA— There are now some 5.2 million of the poorest Filipinos covered by state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), according to the Department of Health (DoH).
The DoH, it listing down its achievements for 2011, also cited the deployment of 21,500 nurses to remote provinces and increased coverage of its measles immunization program.
To achieve these program targets, DoH Secretary Enrique Ona highlighted the importance of public-private sector partnerships to achieve universal healthcare.
“We have made significant strides this year in pursuit of our goal and the support of our partners, which has been instrumental in the past year and will again be critical as we scale up our efforts next year,” Ona said during the recent Philippine Health Outlook Forum.
The expanded PhilHealth coverage topped the list of priority DoH’s programs for the year after President Benigno Aquino III gave an order for the health agency to achieve universal healthcare and enroll 25 million Filipino families to the state-run insurance system by 2013.
Between 2010 and 2011, Ona tapped the Department of Social Welfare and Development to enroll the “poorest of the poor” via the National Household Targeting System of DSWD that offer conditional cash transfers in return when the family sends kids to school.
Poor families, which account up to 40 percent of the total population, are those who live on a monthly salary below P6,500. With this meager amount barely keeping the household needs answered, PhilHealth decided to lower down the premium to P100 so that each family would only pay P3.33 per day for the insurance, according to Ona.
The DoH and PhilHealth also partnered with SM chains of Malls and the CIS Bayad Centers in providing registration sites for PhilHealth members.
Telecommunications firms Globe and Smart also provided marketing and communications support to inform the public about PhilHealth offerings and benefits.
In line with giving more access to healthcare and skilled attendants, DoH deployed 21,500 registered nurses under the Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement and Local Service (RNheals) program, where they are entitled to receive at least P8,000 stipend from DoH and optional allowance from the local government where they are serving.
The programs aim to answer the shortage in nurses and the alarming unemployment situation of nurses in the country. Ona revealed that some nurses had to pay a huge sum of money to get on-the-job trainings at hospitals or take up jobs as sales clerk in malls after graduation.
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