MANILA, Philippines- Bahagya lamang nasasaklaw ng Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) ang kalahati ng populasyon sa limang lalawigan, ayon sa pag-aaral ng state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).
Batay sa pag-aaral na pinamagatang, “Spatiotemporal Analysis of Health Service Coverage in the Philippines,” ang Mindanao ay may pinakamababang PhilHealth population coverage sa 87.82%.
Sa Greater Manila — Metro Manila, Central Luzon, at Calabarzon — mayroong 98.9%, Luzon 90.7%, at sa Visayas 90.5%.
Limang lalawigan naman ang may 52% o mas mababang PhilHealth coverage — Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu, at Tawi-Tawi.
Isinagawa nina PIDS senior research fellow Valerie Gilbert Ulep, supervising research specialist Jhanna Uy, atr esearch consultants Clarisa Joy Flaminiano, Vicente Alberto Puyat, at Victor Andrew Antonio ang pag-aaral.
“This could pose a challenge for PhilHealth in endeavoring to raise member registration for these priority areas and achieve universal population coverage of the NHIP [National Health Insurance Program] in the country,” ayon sa mga may akda ng pag-aaral.
“RA 11223 states that all Filipinos are automatically enrolled under the National Health Insurance Program — which makes the PhilHealth [target] coverage rate 100 percent. But after looking into PhilHealth’s registered beneficiaries data from 2018 to 2021, we identified geographic discrepancies in the population coverage across provinces,” saad sa pag-aaral.
Napag-alaman din dito na pinakamarami sa Mindanao ang indirect contributors, na karamihang indigent o sponsored, sa 57%.
Base sa mga may akda, dulot ito ng iba’t ibang factor– employment, poverty incidence, wage rates, at process inefficiencies sa klasipikasyon at enrolment ng indigents at sponsored members.
Bukod dito, pinakakaunti ang opsyon ng mga Pilipino sa rural areas para sa healthcare services dahil ang PhilHealth-accredited facilities ay “disproportionately located in urban areas.”
Dahil fitom hinikayat sa pag-aaral ang PhilHealth at ang Department of Health na tutukan ang pagpapabuti ng healthcare coverage sa pinakamahihirap na lalawigan at sa ndigents sa poor urban areas para makamit ang universal healthcare.
Iminungkahi nila ang pagpapabuti ng membership enrollment, ng PhilHealth, partikular sa priority areas gaya ng Mindanao.
“PhilHealth, in collaboration with other government agencies, must ensure the accuracy, validity, and consistency of data on indigents at both national and subnational levels to improve healthcare equity throughout the country,” anila.
