Thursday, July 19, 2012

Health not priority under Aquino’s 2013 budget


“Once charity patients from indigent families without PhilHealth coverage are turned away from public hospitals, many will be forced to simply wait for death even if they are suffering from what originally were treatable diseases.”

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Emmi de Jesus is fuming mad. According to the staunch women’s rights activist lawmaker, the Benigno Aquino III administration is deliberately and perhaps even spitefully ignoring the welfare of the Filipino poor when it crafted it’s budget proposal for 2013. De Jesus cited in particular the Aquino government’s 2013 budget proposal for the Department of Health.

“The P56.8 billion ($1.35 billion) proposed 2013 DOH budget dismally falls short of the World Health Organization’s recommended budgetary allocation of five percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for public health. It represents a mere 1.89 percent of the GDP registered by the National Economic Development Agency for the third quarter of 2011. The Aquino administration’s intention to spend no more than P0.62 ($0.014) per Filipino in 2013 without doubt constitutes a violent attack against the Filipino people’s right to health,” de Jesus said.

De Jesus said that what exacerbates an already sorry situation is how the increase in the DOH-proposed budget will only go to PhilHealth.

“The Philhealth system can never replace a genuine universal health care system, especially in a society where poor families can ill afford to feed their families more than twice a day, let alone pay for the PhilHealth premiums. The PhilHealth card is also useless in poorly provisioned public hospitals,” De Jesus asserted.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Campaign against privatization of public hospitals intensifies

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO

Bulatlat.com

As the House of Representatives starts its 16th congressional session later this July, apprehensions are rife that it will push for the complete privatization of public hospitals in the country, leaving poor patients at the mercy of corporate interests.

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy CasiƱo is appealing to his colleagues to withdraw support to bills that aim to corporatize the country’s public hospitals. He said lawmakers should realize that House Bill 6069 or “An Act Creating National Government Hospital Corporations,” has dire, if not life-threatening implications for the country’s poorest citizens. He said hospital corporatization and the government’s Public-Private Partnership scheme will result to higher hospital fees.

“This bill and its counterpart measure Senate Bill 3130 or the National Government Hospital Corporate Restructuring Act, will make healthcare services inaccessible for poor families all over the country,” he said.

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