Photo courtesy of Ping Lacson/Facebook.
Senator Panfilo Lacson on Friday sought an accounting of funds earmarked by law for Universal Health Care, questioning whether the Department of Health had received the amounts intended to finance the program.
At the Senate finance committee hearing on the DOH’s proposed 2027 budget, Lacson asked officials to identify possible gaps between legally mandated funding sources and the amounts eventually made available for UHC.
“Ano ang gap from all these special laws na naipasa na naka-earmark dapat sa DOH? You understand sa buong GAA ito pinapasok. You are dependent on the DBM kung magkano mabibigay lang para sa UHC,” Lacson said.
PhilHealth President and CEO Beverly Lorraine Ho said the agency should be able to claim Php 127.55 billion covering 2019 through the second quarter of 2026. She also cited appropriations of Php 21 billion each for 2023 and 2024.
Lacson linked the funding issue to repeated changes in the government’s UHC financing benchmarks. Under the DOH’s 2019 to 2022 Medium Term Expenditure Program, spending projections ranged from Php 168.23 billion for the low-end scenario to Php 286.33 billion for high coverage.
A succeeding framework raised the high-end projection to Php 469.39 billion, while the 2023 to 2028 financing strategy placed the targets at Php 329.7 billion for low, Php 456.53 billion for medium and Php 593.647 billion for high. Actual health spending in 2022 reached Php 283.52 billion.
“Kung lagi nating nami-miss ang target para saan ang ating ginagawang financing strategies?” Lacson asked. He also noted that PhilHealth had brought the out-of-pocket share of health expenses down from 55 percent in 2016 to 41.2 percent by the end of 2025, with a target of 37 percent by 2028.
Lacson questioned where UHC implementation stood after years of changing spending plans. “Isang napansin ko since rollout, laging papalit-palit ang ating spending plans. Kaya tanong ko, where are we at in the implementation of the UHC? Kasi pupunta tayo ng medium, bababa tayo ng low, wala pa tayo sa high. Ang alam kong timeline, after six years from 2020 to 2026, dapat sa high end ang coverage, lahat na. Nasaan po tayo ngayon?”
He said the Senate could exercise its oversight authority if funds specifically earmarked by law for health care were not being released as intended. “This is where we can help you. Ito ang oversight namin. Kung di nagko-comply ang DBM kasi covered ng batas, earmarked sa DOH and UHC tapos di binibigay sa inyo, this is where our oversight kicks in,” Lacson said.
