Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo believes that something serious must be done to fix the country's ailing healthcare system. 

Quimbo filed on Wednesday, Nov. 8 a resolution that sought to create a joint committee from the House of Representatives and the Senate tasked to look for a targeted solution to the increasingly worrisome situation. 

She said the “shortage in medical personnel, lack of capacity in hospital space, lack of focus on preventive care, unsuccessful efforts to address HIV cases, adolescent pregnancy and infant mortality rate,” all point to a poor health care system of the country. 

“Almost half of patients covered by PhilHealth pay for their medical expenses out-of-pocket and that any reimbursements by PhilHealth are insufficient to cover hospital expenses,” added Quimbo, a senior vice chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations. 

In her resolution, Quimbo underscored the need to urgently address the dire state of the Philippine healthcare system, which she characterized by “poor health outcomes, lack of access to quality care and inefficient allocation of resources". 

The proposed committee will be composed of five senators and five House members. It will be co-chaired by the chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography and the chair of the House Committee on Health. 

The bicameral panel will be responsible for the thorough review, assessment and evaluation of the performance of the offices involved in providing access and financing of health care.  It will serve as the first step toward a potential overhaul of the system, Quimbo said. 

Quimbo lamented the inequities and inefficiencies that continue to plague the healthcare system, even with the implementation of landmark health care reform pieces in the last three decades. 

These include the creation of a National Health Insurance Program, the devolution of health care to local governments, the promotion of the use of generic drugs, and the universality in PhilHealth coverage. 

The representative from Marikina also shared alarming statistics to prove her point: She said that current trends show that four out of 10 registered deaths occur outside the care of a medical professional, and that almost 93 percent of Filipinos choose to self-medicate instead of seeking professional help when they are sick. 

Without a much-needed reform, Quimbo warned that the country is facing a resurgence of HIV infections, continue to fail in the treatment of tuberculosis, a rise in the number of deaths of children from malnutrition and a continuing failure to meet targets in efforts to address infant mortality rate and teen pregnancy.  

Compounding the health care crisis, according to Quimbo, is the shortage of doctors and nurses that the Philippines continues to lose to better opportunities abroad.  In 2021 alone, some 316,000 nurses went overseas to practice their profession. 

Quimbo estimates that at this rate, it will take approximately 12 years to close the nurses-to-population supply-to-demand gap.  The situation is even more problematic for physicians, in which the time to close the current gap can take up to 23 years.

The resolution also pointed to the alleged failure of PhilHealth, the country’s national health insurance provider, to effectively perform its mandate as another significant factor aggravating the problems in the health care system.