MANILA: Whether it happens during his term or in future administrations, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr (pic) said he aspires for a time when patients will pay nothing to receive treatment in hospitals.
In his speech during the distribution of patient transport vehicles on Wednesday (July 9), the President stated that the government is working to overhaul the country’s entire healthcare system.
“We are lowering the out-of-pocket expenses, because right now, patients still need to pay to get diagnosed or treated. Slowly, we want to reduce these payments,” Marcos noted.
According to Marcos, if the country’s economy improves, the government can reduce the medical expenses further, with patients only needing to shoulder minimal administrative fees.
“If we can do it, if we improve our economy, we can reach the point where the patients will no longer have to pay out of their pockets. In other places that I have seen and tried, it’s just the administrative cost. That’s only P100. That’s enough. That’s the aspiration,” the President said.
The President said that he is meeting with the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp (PhilHealth) so as to provide better healthcare services to Filipinos.
Marcos said the government plans to open more specialty centres and Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Service (Bucas) centres to serve the 28 million poorest Filipinos.
As of May 2025, there are 51 Bucas centres affiliated with the DOH operating in 33 provinces, where patients in need of urgent, non-life-threatening medical attention can go for free laboratory and treatment services.
The PhilHealth, under the administration of President and Chief Executive Director Dr Edwin Mercado, wants to decrease the out-of-pocket expenses of Filipinos for healthcare from the current 45 per cent to “25 to 30 per cent.”
The goal is to expand the coverage for high-cost, high-burden diseases, including cancer and other rare diseases.
A study last year revealed that Filipino households have been shouldering most of the medical expenses from 1991 to 2022.
In 2022, when health expenditure reached P1.12 trillion, 45 per cent, or a whopping P502 billion, was paid for by the Filipino household.
In contrast, the national government’s (particularly the DOH) share was only at 21 per cent (P234 billion); the local government at 10 per cent (P109 billion); while PhilHealth’s was a measly 14 per cent (P153 billion), despite its mandate “to provide health insurance coverage and ensure affordable, acceptable, available and accessible health care services for all citizens of the Philippines.”
Private insurance companies, including health maintenance organisations, shouldered the remaining small portions. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
