Health advocates ask about virology center, PhilHealth funds ahead of SONA

Philippine health advocates expressed concern over the pending virology and disease control centers, as well as the national health insurer’s funds, ahead of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s 2024 State of the Nation Address (SONA).

The Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines (VIP) Act of 2022, under Senate Bill No. 941, envisioned the VIP to be the “premier research and development institute in the field of virology, encompassing all areas in viruses and viral diseases in humans, plants, and animals.”

The Department of Budget and Management said in September 2022 that it has earmarked around P419.3 million for virology-related projects.

Meanwhile, at least two bills have been passed by the Upper House (2020’s Senate Bill No. 1440 and 2023’s Senate Bill No. 1869) proposing the creation of a Philippine Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

“It’s been two years,” said Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, former health secretary and chairman at Health Futures Foundation, Inc., a healthcare non-profit. “If it was urgent two years ago, then that should be appearing right now.”

“Expectation ko nga after the July SONA, i-inaugurate na ang CDC (I was expecting the inauguration of the Center for Disease Control after the July SONA),” he said in a July 22 phone call with BusinessWorld. “Bakit hindi ko nakikita ang anino (Why haven’t we seen a whiff of that yet)?”

Mr. Galvez Tan also talked about the non-communicable diseases that are the top causes of death in country: heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and road accidents.

Philhealth Funds

“The recent controversy on PhilHealth’s [Philippine Health Insurance Corporation] P90 billion… wow. The poor are dying because they have no healthcare, and yet PhilHealth is awash with cash,” Mr. Galvez Tan said.

Seventy medical societies and healthcare professional organizations have signed a statement asking President Marcos, Jr. to prevent the diversion of P89.9 billion of unused funds from the PhilHealth to the National Treasury.

The Philippine Heart Association (PHA)’s Council on Cardiac Catheterization has been appealing to PhilHealth since 2016 to provide subsidies for heart attacks, said Dr. Rodney M. Jimenez, a cardiologist and president of the PHA, one of the seventy organizations that signed the joint statement.

This is “so that no patient will be turned down by the hospital or be required to have a substantial deposit before undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention [a treatment that opens blocked heart arteries],” he said.

PhilHealth’s benefits packages have not sufficiently been expanded to reduce out-of-pocket expenses, according to Dr. Anthony C. Leachon, a health reform advocate and past president of the Philippine College of Physicians.

“It is alarming that, despite having excess funds, PhilHealth has yet to comply with the provisions of Section 11 of RA 11223 (or the Universal Health Care Act) premiums of direct contributors increase this year for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said in a July 22 reply to BusinessWorld on X (formerly Twitter). – Patricia B. Mirasol