BY CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
A senatorial candidate running under Partido Reporma led by presidential aspirant Panfilo “Ping” Lacson is planning to push for the amendment of the Universal Healthcare Act and overhaul the Philippine Health Insurance System (PhilHealth) if elected into office.
Dr. Dominga “Minguita” Padilla said she wants to make sure that the Universal Healthcare Act is implemented in full. But this will not happen unless they fix PhilHealth. She will immediately convene an oversight committee to make sure that laws passed are implemented.
“Under Sec. 36 of the PhilHealth Act, we have to increase our premiums which is 0.5 percent every year. But PhilHealth failed to address the corruption side so there is a need to amend the law. We need to stop this first and make sure that PhilHealth fix its system inside since it is not properly working,” she said.
As a staunch advocate of improving healthcare through good governance, Padilla, an ophthalmologist, accepted an appointment to serve as head executive staff of PhilHealth from March 31, 2015 to June 30, 2016.
During her short stint as HES in the latter part of the Aquino administration, Padilla was able to effect numerous reforms inside the PHIC meant to improve efficiency and lessen fraud.
She actively lobbied for the passage of the Universal Healthcare Act as a spokesperson for the University of the Philippines UHC study group during the final push in the last three years leading to the actual enactment of the law in 2019.
Padilla has been in the government for a long time as a doctor and educator at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine-Philippine General Hospital for the past 34 years, as well as consultant and a frequent member of the technical working committees of both houses of Congress for bills concerning healthcare since 1994.
As a private citizen, she founded the Eye Bank Foundation of the Philippines and is one of the founding council members of the Asia Cornea Society. She is co-convenor of various non-government organizations, notably Doctors for Truth and Public Welfare, and during the Covid-19 pandemic as lead medical adviser for Project ARK, a private sector-led movement under the umbrella of GoNegosyo that has endeavored to make SARS-CoV2 testing accessible to Filipinos.*
