LIVING up to its commitment to provide free medical care to indigent patients, the Cebu Provincial government has enrolled at least 23,776 individuals to PhilHealth program in 2015.
Of the total number of recipients, 3,844 are indigents who availed of the Point of Care (POC) program. The rest are low-income beneficiaries.
These low-income individuals include punong barangays, barangay kagawads, barangay treasurers as well as secretaries, tanods, health workers, day-care personnel, nutrition scholars, animal health-aid staff and members of the Lupong Tagapamayapa.
The Capitol has shelled out at least P57 million for the entire membership coverage.
Other individuals with no regular income were also provided with health insurance coverage by the national government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
A universal and free medical care for the poor is on top of the health agenda of President Benigno Aquino III’s administration. In response, Gov. Hilario Davide III and Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale implemented the POC, which automatically enrolls indigent patients upon hospital admission.
The Provincial Health Office (PHO) stationed a medical social worker in every district and provincial hospital to ensure that indigent patients will be enrolled in the program.
The Davide-Magpale administration has also upgraded four of the 16 province-run hospitals to Level 1. These four provincial hospitals can now perform surgery after being equipped with a surgery room, and other facilities like surgery room, isolation room, surgical and maternity clinics, dental clinics, secondary clinical laboratory, blood station, first level X-ray and a pharmacy.