by VENUS MAY H. SARMIENTO
LINGAYEN - The voice of the Pangasinenses were heard in a public consultation for the passage of the “golden opportunity for change for a better health system.”
On Thursday, Senator Joseph Victor ‘JV’ Ejercito led the public hearing on Senate Bill No. 1458 or the Universal Health Care Bill at the Pangasinan Training and Development Centre along with stakeholders and workers from the health sector and the local government.
Universal Health Care is referred to in the Bill as the right of every Filipino to healthy living, working, schooling conditions and to access the needed promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative heath services that is of sufficient quality to be effective and without financial hardship when paying for these services.
“This measure has been prioritized by the President (Rodrigo Duterte) and he even mentioned this in his last SONA (State of the Nation Address). It aims to improve and enhance the PhilHealth law and likewise improve hospital facilities around the country,” Ejercito said.
Ejercito, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, was joined by Senators Joel Villanueva and Nancy Binay in Lingayen town. He said the discussion will be helpful in drafting the final version of the Bill which hopefully will pass the second and third readings by middle of this year.
He noted that because of the unreachable cost of health care services, poor children die needlessly from preventable diseases and poor senior citizens silently succumb to their deaths without proper diagnosis and care from competent doctors.
“Sa UHC, maaaring wala nang mamamatay bunga ng kawalan ng pampagamot. Sa ospital ng gobyerno, aasikasuhin ka kahit wala kang card o anuman,” he added.
Ejercito said funding for this measure is already determined. A big chunk will come from taxes, particularly taxes from the so-called ‘sin’ products.
The roles of different institutions like the local government units (LGUs), PhilHealth and the Department of Health have been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) during the public hearing. Presentation on the objectives of the Universal Health Care and updates on the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP)were also tackled.
Pangasinan Governor Amado I. Espino III, for his part, expressed full support to the passage of the UHC Bill as he stated that the measure will be of great help to the unfortunate members of the society.
This was seconded by Vice Gov. Jose Ferdinand Calimlim, Jr., who noted that all institutions should work as one to attain the goals set in making the UHC successful.
The Pangasinan leg is the last of the series of consultations. The public discussion was earlier held in Cebu for Visayas, Davao for Mindanao and Legaspi City for Southern Tagalog. (VHS/PIA-Pangasinan)
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