Philippine government signs Universal Health Care Law

This gives Filipinos access to a full range of healthcare services.

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte signed the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act into law, allowing all Filipinos to be enrolled to the National Health Insurance Program of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).

This gives citizens access to a full range of health care services, from preventive to promotive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative.

By law, UHC will ensure that there is no balance billing for the non-contributory group members or ward admissions ward admissions and fixed co-payment for contributory group members or private room accommodation.

Amongst the reforms that will be implemented over time include designating PhilHealth as the national purchaser for health goods and services for individuals, improvement of health facilities especially in underserved areas, responding to the gap in health workers throughout the country, strategic engagement of the private sector; and creating and expanding new functions in DOH to improve the delivery of health services.