Is PhilHealth's Sponsored Program Reaching the Poorest of the Poor?

One of the key programs of the PhilHealth is its Sponsored Program for the less privileged wherein health insurance coverage is open to qualified indigents belonging to the lowest 25 percent of the Philippine population. The health insurance covers hospitalization and special packages for facility-based deliveries and newborn screening as well as treatment of illnesses such as tuberculosis, SARS, avian flu, and A (H1N1). A special benefit package under the Sponsored Program is the Outpatient Benefit (OPB) package. This package consists of preventive services, diagnostic services, and laboratory services. With this package, the health concerns of the indigent should more or less be addressed. But what is worrisome are some of the concerns raised by some bonafide members of PhilHealth’s Sponsored Program. In focus group discussions, respondent members lamented that they do not actually feel the supposed benefits of the OPB package. Because of these, many indigents get discouraged from enrolling in the program.Philippines, social health insurance, Philippine Health Corporation (PhilHealth), PhilHealth Sponsored Program

How Are DOH Hospitals Funded?

How are government hospitals funded? What are the sources of their funds and how are these allocated to them? This Note takes a deeper look at this and offers some insights and suggestions in addressing certain issues attendant to it.health sector, health care reform, health management, Philippines, health, health funds, government hospitals

Magna Carta of Public Health Workers: Does it really Fulfill its Intent?

The Magna Carta of Public Health Workers (RA 7305) was enacted to ensure that health workers are properly compensated, thereby helping to promote better delivery of quality health care service. This Note, however, poses some questions after examining data and information regarding payment and funding of the Magna Carta benefits. Does the law really fulfill its original intent? Or does it cause more damage than good?health sector, hospitals, health service delivery, Philippines, health, health funds, disaster risk management, health workers

New Ideas to Help the Aquino Administration Achieve its Health Agenda

One of the inaugural commitments made by the Philippines` new administration is the provision of quality and affordable health care for each and every Filipino. To achieve this, a strategic health agenda is needed. This Policy Note offers a few new ideas that may help the administration achieve its health agenda.health sector, health care, health insurance, hospitals, health care financing, Philippines, health

Assessing LGUs' Health Service Delivery Performance: the Cases of Agusan del Sur and Dumaguete City

With the devolution of health service delivery from the Department of Health to local government units (LGUs) as mandated in the 1991 Local Government Code, how have the LGUs performed in their new task? And how have the local constituents responded to the new set-up? Read more on these...local government unit, health facilities, health service delivery, local government code, local service delivery

Focus on Barangay Economic Development

Because the barangay is considered to be the local government unit closest to the people in terms of access and proximity, its role in local service delivery cannot be undermined. Hence, it is important for a barangay to learn how to maximize and use its limited funds effectively and efficiently so that such can redound to economic gains that would allow the barangay to support the generation and delivery of local services to its constituents. How and where can the barangay use its limited resources? Read on...local government unit, local government unit expenditures, local governance, decentralization and service delivery, institutions, local development, local service delivery

Global Tobacco Economics Consortium

A 50% increase in cigarette prices would lead to millions of life-years gained through smoking cessation, across the study countries (India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Vietnam, Armenia, China, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia, Thailand, and Chile). About 15.5 million men would avoid catastrophic health expenditures and 8.8 million would avoid falling below the World Bank definition of extreme poverty. Despite differences in socioeconomic class and health finance arrangements, a 50% increase in tobacco prices strongly favours those in the bottom income group for life-years saved, out-of-pocket expenses from tobacco attributable treatment costs averted, and avoidance of catastrophic health expenditures or poverty

Benchmarking the efficiency of Philippines electric cooperatives using stochastic frontier analysis and data envelopment analysis

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/</a

Do barangays really matter in local services delivery? Some Issues and Policy Options

This paper, which is borne out of the need to address scarcity of evidence-based studies on barangay financing, analyzes and evaluates key issues on financing of devolved functions at the barangay level, with particular focus on fund utilization and program allocation, and proposes some policy options addressing the issues. Its key findings include: (i) there is a mismatch between financial capabilities and devolved functions owing to limited funds being spent mostly on personal services, with little money left to finance these functions; (ii) different priorities of barangays mean different utilization of their Barangay Development Fund (BDF), with some of them failing to spend on important basic services such as education and health, as well as on economic development sector; (iii) like other barangays, those in the study areas in Agusan del Sur and Dumaguete City are found to be highly IRA- dependent, with IRA comprising 85 to 97 percent of total income; (iv) barangays are not addressing the misalignment of revenue and expenditure assignment, as well as the counter-equalizing and disincentive effects of IRA, by not raising enough own-source revenues in their localities and optimizing their use of corporate powers (as evidenced by zero percentage on borrowings, for example). As a policy intervention strategy to help barangays financially and eventually matter in local service delivery, this paper proposes three major options, namely: (i) giving the barangays the option of allowing the higher LGUs to deliver the development-enhancing services such as education and health that they themselves cannot deliver effectively and sustainably; (ii) making a paradigm shift in understanding and practicing barangay economic development by spending their BDF mostly on economic-enhancing activities aimed at increasing their coffers which would eventually enable them to fund other sectoral responsibilities; and (iii) giving incentives to barangays that excel in their own-source revenue performance and creative use of corporate powers.

Effects of pension payments on savings in the Philippines

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/This paper attempts to provide some empirical evidence on the effects of social security on savings mobilization of households. While it has been empirically established in developed countries that pension system has important effects on savings, no important study has been established yet in the Philippines. Following Feldstein's model, consumption and savings function using a household survey data was estimated. This study aims to contribute to the pension literature by using the Kaplan-Meier duration model to estimate survival probabilities. The findings indicate that there is a negative effect of pension on household savings. The Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System are viewed by current contributors as future wealth and thus, they tend to consume more now and save less than they would have if there were no pension