{"id":203145,"date":"2019-02-20T20:43:50","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=203145"},"modified":"2019-02-20T20:43:50","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:43:50","slug":"prrd-signs-universal-health-care-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/20\/prrd-signs-universal-health-care-law\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD signs Universal Health Care law"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the ceremonial signing of the Revised Corporation Code and the Universal Health Care Act, presentation of the Social Security Act of 2018, Philippines Sports Training Center Act, An Act Providing for the Reapportionment of the Province of Southern Leyte into Two Legislative Districts, and The New Central Bank Act as well as the presentation of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) dividends at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on February 20, 2019. ROLANDO MAILO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Wednesday signed the Universal Health Care Act into law which will automatically enroll all Filipinos under the government\u2019s health insurance program.<\/p>\n

Duterte signed the landmark legislation in a ceremony at the Rizal Hall in Malaca\u00f1an Palace, saying the new law will surely make a positive impact in the lives of the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy automatically [enrolling] our citizens into the National Health Insurance Program and expanding PhilHealth coverage to include free medical consultations and laboratory tests, the Universal Healthcare Law that I signed today will guarantee equitable access to quality and affordable healthcare services for all Filipinos,\u201d Duterte said in his speech.<\/p>\n

Under the legislation, all Filipino citizens, including overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), will be enrolled into PhilHealth, which will have a coverage expanded to include free consultation fees, laboratory tests and other diagnostic services.<\/p>\n

It also aims to improve doctor-to-patient ratio, upgrades hospital bed capacities and equipment and established more hospitals in remote areas.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Duterte certified the measure as \u201curgent,\u201d expressing his desire to provide Filipinos with affordable, quality health services.<\/p>\n

Once the law is released, concerned agencies will draft implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the law.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the UHC program may be implemented \u201cgradually\u201d since Congress has yet to draft a final bill raising tobacco taxes.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the executive can make do with the PHP3.8 trillion budget for 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure our government will know how to source funds in accordance with the Constitution,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed the signing of the UHC Act describing it as a \u201ccritical step towards health for all Filipinos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes this development as it is excellent proof of commitment to improving access to high quality health services at the least cost to families,\u201d the WHO said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe commend the Philippines for taking this step in the right direction,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Wednesday signed the Universal Health Care Act into law which will automatically enroll all …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":203149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}