‘Malasakit Centers critical part of expanded health care’

MANILA, Philippines – The Malasakit Centers, which are a brainchild of Sen. Christopher Go, will be a critical component of the universal or expanded health care program, leaders of the House of Representatives said yesterday.

“These centers will be health system enablers designed to improve patient assistance and referral and provide additional non-medical support to poor Filipinos in need of medical treatment,” Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur said.

He said the establishment of the centers would be “in step with the goal of President Duterte to expand the access of Filipinos, especially poor and low-income families, to prompt and quality health care.”

The House committee on health has endorsed a consolidated bill that would institutionalize Malasakit one-stop shops in public hospitals nationwide.

Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan, who chairs the committee and is one of the authors of the bill, said it is through these centers that poor patients not covered by the insurance program of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) could seek assistance.

“This proposed measure intends to reduce, if not eliminate, out-of-pocket expenditures of indigent patients, including non-medical expenses like transportation costs,” she said.

The hospital director would head the center, while the head of the hospital’s medical social work office would take care of its operations. The two would not get extra compensation.