“The Philippine economy has grown respectably in the past few years, but the overall health status indicators have not markedly improved commensurate with that growth,” the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said in a policy note. Oscar F. Picazo, senior health consultant for PIDS, said that the maternal mortality rate (MRR) has remained high despite gains on the macroeconomic front. For 2011, MRR stood at 221 deaths per 1,000 live births, a long way from the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal (UN MDG) of reducing it to 52 deaths per 1,000 live births. Country-signatories to the UN MDGs vowed to reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio in 2014. “Maternal mortality is an important indicator in health because it covers the entire referral string,” Mr. Picazo said in a press conference. The poorest of the poor also have the least health care utilization with only 3.2% in-patients and 6.0% out-patients for 2008.
