Duterte has completely given up on independent foreign policy – health group

Health Alliance for Democracy together with progressive organizations today trooped to the US Embassy to protest their continued imperialist intervention in the country, in commemoration of the 1991 Senate vote to reject the extension of a US bases treaty.

“At this point, Duterte has completely rejected the prospect of an independent foreign policy,” said HEAD secretary-general Dr. Joseph Carabeo.

This time last year, progressive groups staged protest actions in support of the president’s then-pronouncements against US political and military intervention. “But now, Duterte has accommodated their troops, instigated fear and Islamophobia against the Moro people, and implemented the US-imperialist agenda in Mindanao and throughout the country through his counterinsurgency program,” continued Carabeo.

Duterte’s pandering to the US imperialist and fascist agenda continues through the House-approved national budget railroaded by his majority coalition.

Carabeo observed that the 2018 budget sees cuts for institutions key for social services and the protection of civil liberties, such as public hospitals, state colleges and universities, and the Commission of Human Rights. Meanwhile, billions of pesos will fund AFP-bred paramilitary groups that have targeted progressives and activists, the president’s inflated personal intelligence fund, and community-surveillance program MASA MASID.

“By this, Duterte is covering all his bases and is laying the groundwork to be no different, if not a fascist worse than his predecessors. And that includes Marcos,” Carabeo said.

It is thus up to the Filipino people to stand against the US-Duterte regime’s impending dictatorship, to continue the struggle for an independent foreign policy and a just society. “HEAD is joining the broad movement against tyranny and will march to Luneta on September 21,” Carabeo ended. ##

Health group supports Makabayan block split from House majority

PRESS STATEMENT | September 14, 2017

Health workers and professionals under Health Alliance for Democracy today laud the Makabayan lawmakers for fighting for the people’s interest as they separate from the Majority Coalition in the House of Representatives, Thursday.

“The seven party-list representatives have been relentless in their opposition to policies of the Duterte administration espoused in congress by the House Majority, which corporatize and commodify health care,” HEAD secretary-general Dr. Joseph Carabeo said. To the best of their ability, they fought against the 2017 and 2018 budget cuts to public hospitals and preventive health programs, revealed the inflated PhilHealth budget, and stood ground against the anti-poor Universal Health Coverage Bill.

The Makabayan coalition, composed of 7 lawmakers from different partylists, sever ties with
the Duterte-faithful House majority. Photo by Obet de Castro.

“Despite the persistent railroading, Makabayan stood against the majority bloc’s anti-poor and repressive actions such as the death penalty bill, national ID system, tax reform program, defunding of the Commission of Human Rights, and the declaration and extension of Martial Law in Mindanao,” added Carabeo.

Now that Duterte with his cronies in Congress has revealed himself as a true fascist and is laying the groundwork for a dictatorship, the health sector sees right that the Makabayan bloc sever relations with them. “The health sector and the Filipino people will be together with them in opposing the fascist, imperialist and anti-people US-Duterte regime,” Carabeo ended. ##

Health group cries robbery with planned PhilHealth premium increase

"PhilHealth has already been a scam, and any big increase in contributions would be outright robbery," said Dr. Joseph M. Carabeo, secretary-general of Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD). "This planned contribution increase from P200 to P275 despite its ballooning budget of P57 billion in 2018 should cause an outcry."

"From 2011 to 2017, Philhealth's share in the country's total health expenditure remained low at 11%, while our out-of-pocket expenditure remained high at 50%," Carabeo quipped. This is despite PhilHealth's increase in paid premiums (P1200 to P2400 annually in 2011) and government funding (PhilHealth budget of P3.5 billion in 2011 to P53 billion in 2017).

"A strengthened and more institutionalized PhilHealth, to be renamed as the Philippine Health Security Corporation, is the primary goal of the Universal Health Coverage Bill. The bill is deceptive and should be junked," Carabeo added.

"PhilHealth is run as a corporation, and from healthcare as a right, health is now translated into calculated and ever-limited benefits," added Carabeo. Their preoccupation will be more of the corporation's "survival" with a steady reserve fund for investment, especially funding its top heavy corporate managers and its entire new layer of bureaucracy for the lure of private efficiency.

In the actual setting, government-owned hospitals perennially suffer annual budget cuts and almost always lack basic supplies and medicine. This forces PhilHealth card bearing members to buy at drug stores outside the hospital. The No Balance Billing scheme does not cover pre- and post-hospitalized procedures either. Meanwhile, paying PhilHealth members practically get only discounts (e.g. case rates) and pay the rest of the balance either by themselves or via an additional private health insurance.

The people aspire for a free, comprehensive public healthcare with government taking the primary responsibility. Instead, the government has continually reneged on this and turned to health insurance premiums through so-called risk sharing/solidarity mechanisms.

"Practically, this means instituting more fees for services and a plea for more private participation—privatization! This is robbery in the simplest terms," Carabeo lamented. "We therefore call on the people to resist any increase in the PHilHealth premiums, to demand that instead of hefty government subsidies to PhilHealth, these be diverted to increased budget to government hospital operations and direct public health services," Carabeo ended.##

Nothing "universal" about proposed universal health coverage bill – HEAD

"It's befuddling why government policy insists on universal health coverage as a financing scheme and pours billions of people's money to PhilHealth, even as the corporation continues to be ineffective in decreasing Filipinos' out-of-pocket spending and covering all their health costs," said Health Alliance for Democracy secretary general Dr. Joseph Carabeo on the recent passing of the bill in congress. "The Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Bill will not universalize access to health care."

Under the proposed UHC bill, PhilHealth will be renamed as the Philippine Health Security Corporation (PHSC) and will be the "national purchaser" of health services. Coupled with the mandatory enrollment of all citizens to PHSC, this will ensure that aside from their taxes, everyone will have shell out more money to pay for their health needs through their P2,400-worth mandated contributions.

From 2011 to 2017, PhilHealth has enjoyed a steady increase in funding, with last year's allocation as its highest ever at P53 billion – more than 15 times its 2011 budget of 3.5 billion. Its share in the national health budget also increased from 10% in 2011 to 35% in 2017. And yet Filipinos still paid for more than half of their total health expenses out of their own pockets in 2014 (56%), according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority. Social insurance paid for only 11%.

The mandatory enrollment will milk profit out of Filipinos with measly wages and unsteady sources of income. In the proposed bill, contributory members will include regular employees and those from the informal sector, such as contractual employees and small-time vendors. Even overseas workers who already have insurance abroad will not be spared from the mandated contribution.

The UHC bill expressly states that only certain benefits included in a "positive-list" will be covered by the PHSC. The PHSC will determine if the benefits to be covered will maintain the financial sustainability of the corporation. Therefore, if a service that patients need is not included in the list of benefits, they will have to pay for it. "How can they call this universal health coverage?" remarked Carabeo.

Finally, it will not be the Department of Health (DOH), but the PHSC as a corporation, which will ensure the quality of care, appropriateness of services, financial protection – for as long as it is financially sustainable and will return its investments. The DOH will fade into the background as a technical adviser with no real power. It is by this virtue that health care in the country will be corporatized.

"What is clear here is the responsibility of health services is relegated to an ineffective and inefficient corporation that is geared towards fiscal integrity. Through the UHC bill, health care in the country will be a commodity that must return its investment, and not as a genuine service to the people, a right to be ensured by the government," Carabeo ended. ###