Duterte certifies Universal Healthcare Bill as urgent
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday certified the Universal Healthcare (UHC) Bill as urgent.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr., in a tweet on Monday night, said Duterte certified the bill as urgent during a Cabinet meeting.
Roque, as Kabayan party-list representative, was one of the primary authors of House Bill 5784 or the UHC bill, which the House of Representatives passed on third and final reading in September 2017.
The Senate’s version, Senate Bill 1458, is still at the committee level.
Following the certification, the Senate will be able to pass the bill on second and third reading on the same day.
In a news briefing on Tuesday in Indang, Cavite, Roque welcomed the certification of the bill.
“Under this proposed law we seek to provide for the right to health by providing primary care to all Filipinos. This will give free healthcare and free medicines to all Filipinos,” Roque said.
The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will be replaced and will become the “national purchaser of health services.”
“The PhilHealth will be replaced, its new name will be the PhilHealth Security Corp., which will give medical insurance,” Roque said.
Roque highlighted the importance of barangay (village) health workers in the implementation of the law.
“The role of barangay health workers is important. They are the gatekeepers. They are the first contact of patients, along with the community nurses and midwives,” he said.
“Here, in barangay health centers, they will decide if the patients will be sent to specialists or to hospitals,” Roque added.
He said the UHC bill is one of the 28 bills in the Duterte administration’s legislative agenda.
Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito on Tuesday expressed confidence that the bill would be passed by the Senate when 17th Congress convenes for its third and final session this month.
Ejercito, who heads the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, noted that the increasing prices of basic goods made the passage of the bill more crucial in giving Filipinos access to quality health care.
“With the prices of fuel, transportation, and basic goods skyrocketing, the passage of this bill will mean a lot to Filipino families in terms of improving their quality of life,” Ejercito said in a statement as he welcomed Duterte’s decision to certify the bill as urgent.
The senator said the measure would require the automatic inclusion of every Filipino into the National Health Insurance Program of PhilHealth.
As of 2016, about 91 percent or about 93 million Filipinos were covered by PhilHealth and about half of them were indigents, while the rest were paying individuals and lifetime members.
RALPH U. VILLANUEVA AND JEFFERSON ANTIPORDA
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