After the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program of the Department of Health was slammed as a form of “health pork barrel” because “politicians will be in control of who gets the assistance, how much, and when,” according to Cardinal Pablo David, a special provision has been proposed to allow 80 percent of its budget to the zero balance billing program implemented in local hospitals.
David, the bishop of Caloocan, was responding to the bicameral conference committee’s move to raise next year’s budget for MAIFIP to P51 billion, after the Senate had earlier reduced it to P29 billion.
The DOH said the “zero balance billing expansion to LGU hospitals” will allow Filipinos to avail themselves of that benefit “not just at DOH hospitals, but also in Level 3 LGU-owned hospitals.”
The proposed special provision to the MAIFIP will be included in the 2026 National Expenditure Program, as well as in subsequent annual budgets and will have two component funds, which is for catastrophic health spending, which will have an allocation of “not more than 20 percent”; and funds for the implementation of zero balance billing in LGU hospitals which will receive at least 80 percent of the fund.
The 80 percent for the zero balance billing program will be allocated to LGU Level 2 and Level 3 hospitals, provided that 70 percent of the local government’s rural health units and other primary care facilities of LGUs are accredited under the Yaman ng Kalusugan Program (YAKAP) of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
It also pointed out that medical assistance to indigent patients shall also apply to emergency cases handled by private health facilities, provided that it is the closest in distance and is able to provide the needed treatments.
The DOH Centers for Health Development may also enter into an agreement with “private hospitals and clinical laboratories for health and medical services intended for indigent patients that government hospitals are unable to provide.”
Palace press officer Claire Castro said the use of MAIFIP funds for zero balance billing would not pass through politicians, but will go directly to local government units and LGU hospitals, and the DOH itself will implement the program.
However, critics like Dr. Tony Leachon, an independent health reform advocate, warned that MAIFIP still undermined Filipino’s legally mandated right to universal health care, as its guarantee-letter system requires political endorsements.
Hopefully our government is listening to critics when it comes to dubious programs like the MAIFIP, that was originally designed to put billions of pesos in the hands of politicians yet again, prioritizing their ambitions and careers before the indigent and financially incapacitated patients who need it more. A special provision that diverts the funds to the zero balance billing program in local hospitals is a start, but there shouldn’t be anything special about it at all.*
