25-m Pinoys gain PhilHealth access

June 25, 2013

Twenty-five million indigent Filipinos will now have access to basic healthcare services through the Philippine Health Insurance Corp, Senator Loren Legarda said.

This is made possible with the enactment into law of the measure amending the National Health Insurance Act, Legarda said.

Legarda, principal author of the National Health Insurance Act of 2013, said the new measure “is a great leap towards achieving universal healthcare coverage for Filipinos.”

As of 2012, the national government has enrolled to PhilHealth the poorest 5.2 million families identified by the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

These families are entitled to no-balance billing (no additional co-payment) for 23 identified medical and surgical conditions (dengue, appendectomy, caesarean section, pneumonia, etc.) when they are admitted in a ward bed in any government facility.

Source: Macon Ramos-Araneta, Manila Standard