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THE National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) on Sunday said that the
government has allotted P3.5 billion this year for a program that
provides free health insurance services for about five million poor
Filipino families.
Anti-poverty Secretary Domingo Panganiban said
the national government and its local government partners joined
hands to subsidize the health insurance premiums of P1,200 each for
a targeted 4.8 million poor families under the Sponsored Program of
the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
Panganiban added that the national government
expects local government units to disburse an additional P2.13
billion for the PhilHealth Sponsored Program for 2008 alone.
“The beneficiaries of the PhilHealth-sponsored
program will enjoy the same benefits enjoyed by all regular
PhilHealth members,” Panganiban said.
Through the program, about five million Filipino
families belonging to the poorest 25 percent of the population can
now look forward to adequate social protection in case of medical
emergencies.
Panganiban said President Gloria Arroyo earlier
ordered the cabinet group of NAPC and the National Economic and
Development Authority to discuss ways to help the poor cope with
record-high fuel and food prices.
“The President is determined to ensure better
social protection services for the poor, which is why the government
is aggressively pushing for the maintenance and expansion of this
program,” Panganiban said.
The commission said quoting a report from
PhilHealth that some 2.7 million poor families have already been
enrolled under PhilHealth’s Sponsored Program as of December 2007.
Gilda Salvacion Diaz of the PhilHealth Corporate
Planning Department said that in the expansion of the program, local
government units will be responsible for identifying the program’s
beneficiary families.
-- Ira Karen Apanay
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