Press Release
September 16, 2009

Pia: Hike budget of public hospitals to beat private hospitals' threat
of higher fees

Senator Pia S. Cayetano today called on the government to pour in bigger funds for public hospitals to enable them to accommodate the expected deluge of patients amid moves by the Private Hospital's Association of the Philippines (PrHAP) to hike hospital fees to protest the implementation of the government's Maximum Drug Retail Price (MDRP) scheme.

"Currently, the government has no direct control over fees being charged by private hospitals because theirs is a deregulated business. But what the government can do is increase its subsidy for public hospitals to enable these institutions to offer comparable, if not, better services that would now be accessible and affordable to ordinary Filipinos," said Cayetano, Chairperson of the Senate Social Justice Committee.

"Ensuring quality, affordable and accessible health services is the responsibility of the State. If private hospitals can't assure uninterrupted services to their patients, then it's imperative that the government intervene and fill up any vacuum that the PrHAP's moves may create."

"Just like in the education sector where public schools have been forced to absorb the huge volume of students forced out of private schools by higher tuition fees, the government must also upgrade and prepare our public hospitals for the expected deluge of patients. Health, after all, is a basic social service like education."

"The government should also study the option of further strengthening PhilHealth to cover more services and patients, and allow for prompt reimbursements, as this could be a steady source of income for both private and public hospitals."

"Threats like these are not new, and have in fact become a disturbing cycle. We've heard of these threats before," she lamented, noting how similar threats like "hospital holidays" had been foisted by private hospital owners whenever social measures are being debated on, such as the Hospital Detention Law (RA 9439) and the Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act (RA 9502). A principal author of both laws, Cayetano said it was unfair for these hospitals to hold their patients hostage, each time a controversy arises from a pro-poor health measure being pushed by the government.

She noted that unlike the PrHAP, the Philippine Hospital Association (PHAP) has not resorted to raising their fees to recoup alleged "losses" from the mandatory reduction of essential drugs as mandated by the cheaper medicines law.

Cayetano added that under the P1.45-trillion proposed national government budget for 2010, P27.87 billion had been allotted for health services. The amount is slightly lower than the P28.47 billion budget for the health sector in 2009, and will therefore not likely translate to higher budgetary allocations for regional and specialty hospitals that receive subsidy from the national government.

Ranged against the country's projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of P8.34 trillion in 2010, the health budget P27.87 billion of is equivalent to only 0.33 percent of GDP.

"Our health budget is way, way below the World Health Organization's recommended level that developing countries must allot a national health budget equivalent to five percent of its GDP."

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