DOH aims to eliminate out-of-pocket med expenses

The government has an ambitious plan of eliminating, or at the very least reducing Filipinos’ medicine expenses which is 90 percent out-of-pocket costs.

Despite that the pharmaceutical industry has cut prices of medicines overtime, or that 65 percent of the market are generic brands, Filipinos are still basically paying bulk of all medicine expenses.

“About 90 percent of expenses (of drugs) are paid out of pocket. (So that’s a) huge chunk of what we are paying (which the government) does not like,” said Department of Health (DOH) undersecretary, Vicente Belizario Jr., on the sidelines of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines’ (PHAP)’s Global Forum on Research and Innovation for Health 2015 yesterday in Manila.

“We have to minimize, if not eliminate, out-of-pocket expenses. (That’s not) universal healthcare because you are still paying for the maintenance of your health. We minimize that number (90 percent) so that the people don’t feel the burden of having to pay for drugs over the counter or having to buy their maintenance medications.

When asked what the government target is, he said “the idea should be as little as possible.”

Belizario said Philhealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corp.) already covered 82 percent of a monitored population. He said those still not covered are homeless individuals, or people who live on the streets. The aim is to have 100 percent coverage for it to be considered a universal health care system.

“(The government) needs to reach the poorest of the poor,” the senior health official said.

Becoming a Philhealth member has become easier recently. For example, a poor patient who goes to a DOH hospital that is Philhealth-accredited will be automatically enrolled in the health program.

Belizario also commented that the pharmaceutical industry, especially as represented by PHAP members, should align and focus its research and development projects with the government’s National Unified Health Research Agenda or NUHRA.

The NUHRA is aimed at guiding and influencing the health sector with research priorities such as health technology development, health financing, health service delivery and socio-environmental health concerns.

PHAP members are investing 1 billion in health R&D. “If the 1 billion only covered part of the MUHRA, then it's certainly not enough. If it covers most of it, probably,” said Belizario. “But I don’t think its enough. Part of R&D should help solve the health problems and we have a lot of health problems still.”