The nationwide rollout of the Universal Health Care law, which will put all Filipinos under the health insurance system and will guarantee quality and affordable healthcare, may not be implemented soon, according to the Health Department.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in the Senate budget deliberations that the implementation of the UHC law nationwide cannot be done next year due to lack of readiness and sufficient budget.
“The strategic readiness of the DOH in the implementation of the Universal Health Care, year one is 2020, and it is a progressive realization it cannot be a national rollout,” Duque said.
The Health Department added that there is a need for capacity building to make sure that communities are ready for the UHC.
“We cannot do a national rollout because of budgetary constraints and also because of the readiness. We need to do capacity building in the different provinces, who under the law will be the convergence points of integration,” he added.
The Budget Department has allocated Php165.5-billion budget for the implementation of the UHC Law.
Duque said that what can the department do now is to rollout UHC in different pilot areas.
These places will serve as a model for the UHC implementation.
