Last January 24, 2013, I attended a lecture by Dr. Jaime Galvez-Tan, a former DOH Secretary and now a health consultant for many agencies, heads a health NGO and is back to teaching at the UP College of Medicine. The event was organized by the Dr. Stephen Zuellig Center at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), in partnership with several organizations. It was a good lecture because the focus is on human resources in healthcare -- nurses, doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other professionals.His paper title however, has a negative implication, "Who will heal us now?", implying that very few have the capacity to provide the nearly 100 million Filipinos sufficient healthcare.
He started with an upbeat mode though, saying that 2013 is the "Golden Year for Health". Credit goes to the passage of the Sin Tax law plus the huge hike in DOH budget.
Dr. Tan is credited by many professionals and observers of Philippine public healthcare as among the few individuals who have greatly influenced the current President to pour more money on healthcare. He was among the key advisers to the President when the latter was still on the campaign trail during the 2010 Presidential elections. See more numbers in the jump in public spending on healthcare. The data on P31.35 B for 2013 is projection from Sin Tax additional revenues alone.
Then he asked that while there should be a balance between health infrastructures (hospitals, clinics, laboratory facilities, medicine, nursing and dental schools, etc.) and health human resources, the latter seems to have been left out in healthcare priorities.
Universal healthcare (UHC) or Kalusugang Pangkalahatan (KP) is the banner of the PNoy Aquino government's health agenda. It is actually a rehash of previous attempts by previous administrations, dating back since the 60s and 70s perhaps, with the creation of Medicare and its mandatory membership for all. Corruption, wastes and inefficiency killed it, along with the money and forced contributions by members on top of the taxes they paid to the government. That is why the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHIC or simply PhilHealth) was created in 1995 to replace Medicare.
Of course I don't believe in government monopolization and nationalization of healthcare. Like in other sectors, a monopolist is not seriously interested in bringing down costs, but in jacking them up. Customers and patients have no choice anyway but give their money to the monopolist. I believe that healthcare competition and deregulation is a more cost-effective way to achieve UHC. Nonetheless, here are Dr. Tan's graphics on UHC.
The UN's MDGs are just two years away. Of the eight sectoral goals, three are healthcare related. And healthcare is not just a mandate of the DOH but also by the various local government units -- provincial, city, municipal and barangay governments -- and other agencies like the UP College of Medicine, UP Philippine General Hospital (PGH).
The second chart has been repeatedly used by the pro-RH bill (now a law) camp. The advocates of that law in effect were saying that the DOH, LGUs, other agencies were very inefficient and wasteful in not reducing maternal healthcare, despite the tens of billions of pesos given to them yearly. Did the officials of these agencies only pocket the money that was meant to reduce maternal death? So there is a need to create a new law and new spending program to reduce maternal healthcare? Their argument was indeed lousy. But they won, meaning more money for various government agencies, plus additional regulations and interventions.
