Public health services to get P37.9 billion next year

MANILA, Philippines - Public health services will get at least P37.9 billion next year based on the P1.541-trillion national budget for 2010 Malacañang submitted to Congress for approval, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said yesterday.

By agency, the Department of Health (DOH), with a proposed allocation of almost P28.5 billion, tops the list of recipients, Andaya said.

He explained government health spending would easily reach P37.9 billion, “as the (allocation) does not include Philhealth benefits to its members, which runs into billions of pesos annually, the budget of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), which falls under the University of the Philippines system, among others.”

This also excludes the computation for the spending for clinics and rural health units by provincial, city and municipal governments, Andaya noted.

“Most rural hospitals are run by provincial governments and their budget is not covered by the DOH but is drawn from locally-generated income and the Internal Revenue Allocation which is a plowback of national taxes collected,” he said.

Operating funds of hospitals that serve policemen and military personnel and their dependents and the P1.7 billion for the second round of pay hikes for health personnel in July next year “are likewise not embraced by the P37.9 billion we have quoted,” he said.

Next to the DOH, four Quezon City-based specialty hospitals – the Lung, Kidney, Heart and Children centers – and the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care, which are technically government corporations, will receive a combined subsidy of P805 million, he said.