P57M allocated for PhilHealth membership of 23T indigents

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu provincial government has allocated P57 million in order to fund the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) membership of more than 23,000 individuals.

Of the total number of recipients, 3,844 are indigents who availed of the Point of Care (POC) program of the provincial government and others are low-income individuals.

The POC enrolment program of the Capitol aims to provide easier access to healthcare services to the poor members of the society.

The low-income individuals include punong barangays, barangay kagawads, barangay treasurers, as well as secretaries, tanods, health workers, day-care personnel, nutrition scholars, animal health-aid staff and members of the Lupong Tagapamayapa.

Under the national government, the Social Welfare Department under the Modified conditional Cash transfer Program (MCCTP) and National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction also provided health insurance to individuals with no visible means of income.

A universal and free medical care is on top of the health agenda of President Benigno Aquino's administration.

In response, the Capitol implemented the POC that provides an automatic enrollment of indigent patients.

The Provincial Health Office (PHO) has stationed a medical social worker in every district and provincial hospital to ensure that indigent patients will be enrolled in the program.

Further, the current administration has upgraded four of the 16 province-run hospitals to Level 1.

The four provincial hospitals can now offer surgery, among others after beefing up their facilities with a surgery room, isolation, surgical and maternity facilities, dental clinics, secondary clinical laboratory, blood station, first level X-ray, and a pharmacy.

Revenue collected from the medical facilities is utilized by the Capitol to let health care services grow and medical infrastructure improved.

The Capitol also approved an ordinance in June last year granting free medical care to children aged 0 to six years old whose parents are indigents. —(FREEMAN)