Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 16) – The Department of Health is proposing a ₱182.10-billion budget in 2021 for the Universal Health Care law, with the bulk of the amount allocated for its implementation and for strengthening the healthcare system against viral diseases.
Health Undersecretary Mario Villaverde told the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Tuesday that the DOH’s budget for next year is aligned with the UHC law.
“You can see here that Priority 1 is related to the implementation of UHC and linked to this is our proposal for health system resiliency, particularly in terms of responding to emerging infectious diseases,” said Villaverde.
“These are interrelated and most of the provisions of the Universal Health Care can be adopted to in terms to our response to emerging infectious diseases.”
The DOH said ₱53.20 billion would be allocated for the implementation of UHC law-related proposals while ₱20.89 billion would be earmarked for the strengthening of the health system against viral outbreaks.
Second in the list of priorities are for other health law-related items which would get ₱35.11 billion.
The third priority is for other urgent and compelling needs, like tuberculosis control and anti-rabies programs, with a proposed fund of ₱37.83 billion.
Meanwhile, ₱35.08 billion was allocated for other operations of the department.
Signed into law in February last year, the UHC aims to provide easier and equal healthcare access to Filipinos. The law’s implementing rules and regulations were released eight months later.
