MANILA, OCTOBER 7, 2010 (STAR) By Sheila Crisostomo - In the first 100 days of the Aquino administration, the Department of Health (DOH) has largely been preoccupied with fighting dengue and expanding the coverage of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
The DOH has also been evaluating the conditions of health facilities nationwide to rationalize the distribution of resources.
The department has also made clear that it would promote both natural and artificial forms of family planning.
From Jan. 1 to Sept. 18, dengue cases nationwide rose to 90,771, representing a 124.37 percent increase from 40,456 cases recorded in the same period last year.
The number of cases tapered off in the last week of August when the infection rate reached its peak.
Some 611 persons died from the infection, a number significantly higher than the 406 deaths recorded in the same period last year.
The DOH has since launched an information campaign to prevent the spread of the dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito, which thrives even in clean water left stagnant, by eliminating their breeding sites.
The rise in dengue cases was attributed to the occurrence of the El Niño phenomenon, the onset of the typhoon season, and the circulation of all four strains of dengue at the height of the infection.
During El Niño from the last quarter of 2009 to early June this year, people stored water in uncovered containers, making these breeding spots for dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
Infection was aggravated by the onset of the rainy season in July, which is also known as flu season.
At the height of infection, the DOH discovered the circulation of all four strains of dengue types 1, 2, 3 and 4 making anybody vulnerable to the disease because a patient who survived infection of one type of dengue is not immune to the other types.
Universal insurance
The Aquino administration plans to achieve universal health insurance coverage in three years.
Health Secretary Enrique Ona said aside from wider coverage, they also want to increase the support value of PhilHealth by reducing the current out-of-pocket expenses of members.
Based on the 2008 National Demographic Health Survey released last January, only 42 percent of Filipinos are covered by the state health insurer.
To widen PhilHealth membership, the DOH held a nationwide registration for new members last Saturday.
Priority was given to some 4.7 million families certified as indigents in the National House Targeting System -Proxy Means Test conducted by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Rationalization of expenditures
For the past three months, the DOH has been evaluating the condition of public health care facilities to rationalize the distribution of resources.
There are complaints that many hospitals are lacking in beds, equipment and medicine.
We have to address that, from regional hospitals to provincial hospitals, district hospitals and even rural health units, Ona said.
The DOH particularly wants to strengthen the capacity of birthing facilities in line with the country's commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of reducing infant mortality and improving maternal health.
Reproductive health
The health department has been open to the promotion of contraceptives to address the country's ballooning population.
Ona said the DOH no longer limits its family planning program to natural methods and now intends to promote both natural and artificial family planning methods.
He said contraception should not be discussed in the context of pregnancy alone but responsible parenthood as well.
Ona said DOH P931-million proposed budget for promoting reproductive health in 2011 includes the budget for the procurement of contraceptives and carrying out information campaigns.
He said couples must be provided with all the options to limit the size of their families.
RELATED NEWS FROM THE INQUIRER
Tondo poor first of 4.6M set to get free PhilHealth By Christian V. Esguerra Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 01:58:00 10/03/2010
JIANELY FALCIS, 38, woke up early as usual on a Saturday.
She set about her early morning ritual in her Tondo shack – prepare the kids, cook brunch (and hope something would still be left over for dinner), and pray that her husband, a factory worker, would continue to be gainfully employed.
Apart from job anxiety, there is always the nagging fear that if any one in the family were to fall seriously ill, the utter lack of money would mean the loss of a life.
For as long as Jianely can remember, no one in her family has ever stepped into a private hospital.
But she hopes all that will change now that she has been granted a membership card from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
Jianely was one of several thousands indigent residents who trooped to the "PhilHealth Sabado" booths for the nationwide registration that lasted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Jianely and her neighbors at the Baseco Compound in Manila were especially fortunate as President Benigno Aquino III no less witnessed the registration process to underscore his government's promise "to lessen the burden on the poor in terms of health care expenses."
Aquino said the objective was to enroll with the state-run health insurer 5 million poor Filipinos within the next three years.
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon "Dinky" Soliman said the goal was "doable." She said an initial 800,000 beneficiaries would receive free PhilHealth membership.
They were identified through the DSWD's National Household Targeting System (NHTS), the mechanism that was used to determine the "poorest of the poor" Filipinos who were to become beneficiaries of the government's conditional cash transfer program.
Soliman said the NHTS now has in its database a total of 4.6 million people whom the DSWD hopes to all enroll with PhilHealth by 2015, a year before the President bows out of office.
Premium gov't subsidy
Jianely, a housewife, was among the first beneficiaries of Saturday's registration program that Aquino himself launched in one of the most impoverished areas of the country.
"This is the first time I've had health insurance," she told reporters, shortly after signing up at the PhilHealth counter at President Corazon Aquino High School.
"We knew nothing about this before. We are used to going only to public health centers," she said.
Health insurance was a hitherto unaffordable luxury for Jianely whose family, like most Filipinos of her income class, subsist on a meager salary. What her husband earns as a warehouseman is barely enough to support their four children.
"He earns below minimum, sometimes nothing when there's no work," she said.
The P1,200 annual premium on Jianely's PhilHealth card was covered by a government subsidy.
Soliman said all was not lost for those who would have wished to join PhilHealth but could not get into the NHTS list.
"They will also be registered but the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of the Interior and Local Government will be verifying if indeed, they are indigents," she said.
If they are, they will be given the PhilHealth subsidy, she said.
'Bayanihan' spirit
In the meantime, she said the more fortunate Filipinos should practice the "bayanihan" spirit by helping, say a poor neighbor or house help, avail of PhilHealth membership. She noted that the premium payments go as low as P100 monthly.
In his speech in Tondo yesterday, the President said "the path toward universal health care does not start nor end with this event."
"Instead, our initiative today serves as an impetus to propel the health sector in achieving its goal of providing equitable and sustainable health care for every Filipino," he said.
"Our movement for change depends on our ability to empower the vulnerable, and there is no better way of becoming part of this transformative agenda than to embrace our communal responsibility and safeguard the well-being of our people," he said.
Dismay
Aquino was dismayed at the miserable "benefit delivery rate of the National Health Insurance Program in the country which stands at only 8 percent."
He said the figure translated to only four out of 50 patients who considered PhilHealth beneficial and knew what insurance coverage was all about.
Only 50 percent of members who went to private hospitals used their PhilHealth benefits, and only 24 percent in government institutions, Aquino said.
Sufficient knowledge
"In short, even members don't have sufficient knowledge of how PhilHealth can help with their health-care expenses," he said.
Taking the President's words to heart, Jianely said the goal of securing better health care for her family would not stop at yesterday's registration.
For her, what is more important is to get involved and to know what her new card can do the next time she or anyone in her family falls ill.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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