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Marcos wants to lessen out-of-pocket medical expenses of Pinoys

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is aspiring to ease the burden of Filipino patients and lessen their out-of-pocket medical expenses. During the distribution of patient transport vehicles on Wednesday, Marcos said the government has been improving the services of state insurer PhilHealth to Filipinos. "Binababaan natin ang payment, ang bayad, kasi kahit papaano 'yung pasyente pagka magpapatingin o magpapagaling ay mayroon pa ring kontribusyon. At dahan-dahan naming babawasan 'yang kontribusyon ng pasyente," Marcos said in his speech. (We're lowering the payment because right now, the patients still have contribution. Slowly, we will lower their contributions.) The President noted that if the Philippine economy would improve, the government can lessen medical expenses further and, if possible, patients would only shoulder administrative fees. "At kung tayo'y magawa natin, 'pag naayos natin ang ating ekonomiya nang mabuti at kaya na natin ay kaya naman siguro natin, wala nang kontribusyon ang pasyente. Bigyan na lang natin ng… Siguro 'yung kagaya sa ibang lugar na nakikita ko na nasubukan ko, administrative cost lang. Wala 'yun mga isang daang piso 'yun. Tama na 'yun. Iyon lang siguro ang naibigay nila. That is the aspiration," he said. (If we can, if we already improve our economy, we can reach the point where the patients will no longer have contributions. In other places, it's just the administrative cost. That's only P100. That's enough. That's the aspiration.) Marcos said he has been meeting with the Department of Health with regard to the budget of the agency, with the aim to improve the country's healthcare system. "At the moment, iyong sistema natin is not sufficient para ating magawa 'yun. Siyempre 'yung pondo laging kulang. But minamaniobra natin, minamasahe natin ang budget nang mabuti para naman mapabilis ang pagpaganda ng health service para sa ating mga kababayan," Marcos said. (Our system is not yet sufficient to do this. We often lack funds. But we are fixing the budget to improve the health services for the public.) In August 2024, health think tank Unilab Center for Health Policy (UCHP) released research papers on the country's total health expenditure (THE) over a 30-year period from 1991 to 2022. The studies found, among others, that "private out-of-pocket payments (OOP) have been consistently the biggest component of healthcare spending through the years." In 2022, the UCHP said, out-of-pocket payments "accounted for 45 percent of the country's total health expenditure." — VDV, GMA Integrated News