Health
From The Report: The Philippines 2015
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The Philippine experiment of combining public health care spending with private sector delivery continues to evolve. As health care remains central to the public interest, there is a heavy onus on improving access and efficiency in accordance with the goal of providing universal health care coverage for all Filipinos by 2016. The year 2015 is expected to focus on consolidation, as inefficiencies in PhilHealth and shortcomings in the investment environment are addressed with an influx of funding. The battle to improve the quality of care in rural areas remains pressing and efforts to keep qualified health care staff close to home should start having an effect on the sector overall.

This chapter contains an interview with Alexander A Padilla, President and CEO, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Universal health care drives health sector growth in the Philippines
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With the government committing unprecedented levels of funding to increasing the coverage of its national public health insurance programme, positive effects are being felt throughout the domestic health sector. The Philippine experiment of combining public health care spending with private sector delivery continues to evolve. As health care remains central to the public interest, there is a heavy onus on improving access and efficiency in accordance with the goal of providing universal health care coverage for all Filipinos by 2016. In addition to the realisation of hard infrastructure projects under public-private partnerships (PPPs), options…

Analysis

The Philippines’ government works to reduce the cost of medicine
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The pharmaceutical industry in the Philippines has been seeing stable growth for the past decade, and it looks set to continue. Though the market stood at $4.3bn in 2013, several recent and incoming changes could enable to sector to reach approximately $8bn by 2020. The increase is linked to the government’s intervention in price control and a growing acceptance of generic drug variants. The spending power of the population has also been on the rise, with per capita health care expenditure hitting $119 per person, according the World Bank, up from less than $30 in 2003. The traditional preference of doctors and patients for high-quality,…

Interview

Alexander A Padilla, President and CEO, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth): Interview
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Interview: Alexander A Padilla How can PhilHealth boost utilisation of the universal coverage programme among the unserved and underserved segments of the population? ALEXANDER A PADILLA: In 2014 alone, the national government allotted P35.3bn ($794.3m) in premium contributions for 14.7m families, or roughly 46m individuals. Allocation will increase to P37.2bn ($837m) in 2015, as coverage is expanded to Barangay officials and – as part of the peace initiative – to the Moro Islamic Liberation…

Analysis

The Philippine health sector is set to grow through a number of public-private partnerships
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Though health care sector spending is on the rise in the Philippines, years of underinvestment have resulted in a deficit in both available facilities and services. Although improvements are being made – in 2014 the Philippine government spending on health care reached the 5% of GDP recommended by the WHO – to reach the levels of care planned for the universal health care system by 2016, integrating of the private sector is necessary. Health care provision is an important issue in the Philippines, but there has traditionally been trepidation about involving the private sector in what is viewed as a state responsibility. Such caution, which…