DOHand Free hospitalization, medicine await poor Filipinos in 2017

SHARIFF AGUAK,
Maguindanao – Here’s one good news for poor Filipinos.

Starting next
year, the Department of Health, through government hospitals, will provide free
hospitalization and medicine, especially the poor, jobless or the senior
citizens.

In her first
visit to Maguindanao Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO), Health Secretary
Paulyn Jean Rossel-Ubial assured the public of free health services. She said starting 2017, budget for health
services have been increased to cover the hospital needs of the poor and needy
Filipinos.

No need Philhealth
card, just prove you are a Filipino, you are entitled to be covered by the
health benefits, the Philhealth will take care of the hospital billings and
other concerns, Ubial told health officials and the media.

Ubial said the
DOH was granted by Department of Budget and Management funds last month to pay the
arrears of P32 billion out of P42 billion deficits from Philhealth. She assured
the public that her agency now has good financial condition to cover the plight
of majority Filipinos’ hospital bills.

The arrears
accumulated after contributions supposed to be collected from government
employee’s contributions were not paid to Philhealth in the past five years.

This is first
time in the history, President Duterte has exerted all efforts and expect
changes in the next days where patients or family member will leave hospitals
with no balance billings, Ubiad added.

Image may contain 6 people sand//scontent.fceb2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15439781_10211344380993136_4116057337134234792_n.jpg?oh=803ae364bd0e502175749f5cd97816f2andampoe=58B4E7F6 (Health Sec. Paulyn Jean Rossel-Ubial assures the public of President Duterte's free hospitalization, medicine for indigent Filipinos - FC) Ubial said she
was glad some senators granted additional P1 billion from P2 billion her office
had requested to subsidize for free medicines for indigent Filipinos.

She announced
that President Duterte has set aside another P5 billion out of funds from
Philippine Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) to cover additional maintenance drugs of
the poor patients.

This will be
handled by DOH in coordination with Department of Social Welfare and
Development under the Medical Access Program.

Unlike before,
Ubial noted, people have depended on cheap medicines in Botika ng Barangay.
This time, she said, patients need not worry where to produce money to buy
medicine because the government will provide it for free under the DOH health
program.

Just take
care of the poor, I’ll take care where to find the money, Ubial quoted President
Duterte as telling her.

Ubial was in
Maguindanao to grace the inauguration of the first ever CT scan machine of
IPHO-Maguindanao, which the DOH has given as additional facility to capacitate
the less equipped yet multi-functional provincial hospitals.

The CT
Scanner is needed most here, this in line with the DOH program of empowering local
hospitals, especially at the provincial level or community level to decongest
the big government hospitals and making it accessible at less expenses to the
patients, IPHO-Maguindanao head Dr. Tahir Sulaik, said.

Ubial also
joined the Maguindanao health workers in a gift giving of wheel chairs and
Christmas package to persons with disabilities, a dialogue with health workers
and Health Congress in Cotabato City wherein a year-end thanksgiving party was
also initiated within the day.

Asked to comment
on the planned pull out of USAID assistance, Ubial said they are not worried if
USAID will no longer extend and exclude the Philippines in Millennium Challenge
Corporation (MDC).

The planned
pull out was in response to President Duterte’s war on drugs that the US
government has been criticizing.

We are
worried no more since most of the USAID interventions for DOH are mostly
technical assistance unlike before that they provide actual medicine and family
planning commodities, she said.(Ferdinandh Cabrera)