A senator on Sunday proposed gutting the Health Department's Medicare Financial Assistance Program to fund a “zero-balance billing” program at public hospitals that guarantees patients no out-of-pocket expenses for covered services.
Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who heads the Senate Finance Committee, proposed funding the Zero-Balance Billing Program for Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Disabled Patients (MAIFIP) program.
“Let's put MAIFIP into a zero-balance billing program. We must reform our Universal Health Care to ensure access to quality health services for all Filipinos without financial hardship,” he said in a statement.
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) currently bears the entire cost of services covered under the program. Services include room and board, medications, laboratory tests, and professional fees, ensuring patients pay nothing beyond their coverage. This only applies to patients admitted to ward-type hospital accommodation.
The MAIFIP program has an allocation of P49.2 billion under the proposed 2026 National Expenditure Plan.
“It saddens me to see some people standing in line at politicians' offices,” Mr Gatchalian said. “We are putting the power to make life-and-death decisions into the hands of politicians, which is not the right thing to do because the system is supposed to help our constituents.”
He said the zero-balance billing program and the PhilHealth program will be able to support patients in public hospitals.
He also said that there is a need to increase the capacity of public hospitals due to the zero-balance programme. – Adrian H. Halili
