PhilHealth: P'sinan must lead in health development

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, Philippines  – This province should take the lead in adopting an integrated and comprehensive approach to health development, being one of the biggest provinces in the country.

Dr. Eduardo Banzon, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) president and chief executive officer, stressed this here last Monday following the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the provincial government led by Gov. Amado Espino Jr. providing for a two-year universal enrolment of all indigent families. The previous MOA provides for only one-year enrolment.

Banzon said Pangasinan is among the top five provinces with the most number of indigent families enrolled in PhilHealth, adding that in the next few months, enrolment is expected to become “universal” in the province.

In his first term in 2007, Espino launched the health care program initially covering hospital reforms that led to the upgrading of facilities in all of the 14 provincial government-run hospitals.

The PhilHealth enrolment sponsored by the provincial government has dramatically increased from 26,005 in June 2007 to 238,580 in 2011.

“It’s good governance that makes the difference,” Banzon said, referring to new health care service modes being carried out in Pangasinan.

The number, according to PhilHealth, keeps growing until universal enrolment covering almost three million Pangasinenses will be fulfilled in the next few years.

However, the newly signed MOA states that with the implementation of the Aquino Health Agenda for Universal Health Care or Kalusugan Pangkalahatan, there is a need to increase the annual premium contribution for the sponsored program to P2,400 effective January 2012 pursuant to PhilHealth Board Resolution No. 1571.