{"id":258530,"date":"2020-06-18T08:02:47","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T12:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=258530"},"modified":"2020-06-18T08:02:47","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T12:02:47","slug":"palace-rejects-plan-to-delay-universal-health-care-implementation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/06\/18\/palace-rejects-plan-to-delay-universal-health-care-implementation\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace rejects plan to delay Universal Health Care implementation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said PhilHealth\u2019s bid to postpone the full implementation of the UHC Act is a violation of the law. (File photo: Presidential Photo via PNA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday thumbed down the plan of state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to delay the implementation of Republic Act (RA) 11223 or the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said PhilHealth\u2019s bid to postpone the full implementation of the UHC Act is a violation of the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIto po ay labag sa<\/em>\u00a0literal\u00a0na probisyon ng batas<\/em>\u00a0(That violates the literal provision of the law, as well as the intention),\u201d Roque said in a virtual press briefing aired on state-run PTV-4.<\/p>\n

Roque made the statement after PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales, during a joint congressional committee hearing on Tuesday, stressed the need for a \u201cgeneral delay\u201d of UHC implementation, as he forecast a budget deficit for the agency until 2024.<\/p>\n

Morales noted that PhilHealth is expected to lose around PHP40.7 billion from February this year until January 2021 due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

Roque bucked Morales\u2019 proposal, stressing that the full implementation of UHC should proceed as planned.<\/p>\n

He also noted that PhilHealth\u2019s funds are not enough to provide Filipinos an efficient delivery of health services.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi maibibigay ang karapatan ng mabuting kalusugan kung ang aasahan lamang ay iyong mga<\/em>\u00a0premiums\u00a0na binabayad sa<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth (We will not be able to protect the Filipinos\u2019 right to health if we only rely on PhilHealth\u2019s premiums),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

RA 11223, inked by Duterte on February 20, 2019, intends to protect and promote the right to health of all Filipinos by automatically enrolling them in the government\u2019s health insurance program.<\/p>\n

The UHC is meant to give every Filipino the highest possible quality of health care that is accessible, efficient, equitably distributed, adequately funded, fairly financed, and appropriately used.<\/p>\n

Roque said PhilHealth should ensure the full implementation of UHC law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not warning. It\u2019s just that it is the law that has to be implemented,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cTutustusan po iyan. Iyan po talaga ang<\/em>\u00a0central feature\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0Universal Health Care (We have to allot funds for it. That is the central feature of Universal Health Care. This is not an ordinary medical insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corruption hounding PhilHealth<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the government is now looking for money to implement RA 11223.<\/p>\n

Roque said the full implementation of UHC law would not be successful if corruption continues to hound PhilHealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung hindi po matatanggal ang korapsyon diyan sa<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth\u00a0ay talagang hindi po magtatagumpay ang<\/em>\u00a0Universal Health Care (We will not be successful implementing the universal health care if corruption in PhilHealth will not be eliminated),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In June last year, Duterte asked then PhilHealth acting president Roy Ferrer and board members to resign to \u201chave a clean slate absent of any taint of irregularity in rendering services, as well as implementing pertinent policies on health, including the Universal Health Care Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roque said it would be better to tap a new government office that would implement the UHC law if PhilHealth cannot do its job.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiguro po hahanap na lang po ng iba na pupuwedeng magpatupad niyan<\/em>\u00a0(Perhaps, it\u2019s better to scout for another agency that can implement that),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cause for concern<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roque lamented that until now, some PhilHealth officials are still involved in irregularities under the leadership of Morales.<\/p>\n

He added that Duterte considers the continuing corruption in PhilHealth as a cause for concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a matter that concerns the President dahil zero-tolerance po si Presidente\u00a0gaya po pagdating po sa korapsyon<\/em>\u00a0(because he has zero-tolerance when it comes to corruption),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque also claimed that Morales has yet to take appropriate actions against erring PhilHealth officials.<\/p>\n

To address the problems besetting PhilHealth, Roque said he would ask Duterte to hold a meeting with him and Morales.<\/p>\n

\u201cManghihingi ako ng pagpupulong kay Presidente ng sa gayon ay maimbitahan si<\/em>\u00a0General Morales\u00a0at pupunta rin po ako para masabi ko naman kung ano talaga ang aking damdamin<\/em>\u00a0(I will ask the President to invite Morales in a meeting and I will also attend so I can express my sentiments),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday thumbed down the plan of state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to delay the implementation of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":253412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258530","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258531,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258530\/revisions\/258531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}