Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday, December 16 called on the Senate contingent to consider allocating around P15-billion to local government unit (LGU) hospitals so they properly implement the zero balance billing (ZBB) program. 

This P15-billion will come from the P51-billion fund approved by the panel for the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program.

Hontiveros made the call as the Senate and House of Representatives remain in a deadlock over controversial provisions in the 2026 national budget during the bicameral conference committee. 

“If this special provision in the budget would be adopted, we can guarantee that P15-billion or 30 percent of the P51-billion for MAIFIP will go to LGU hospitals for the free medical assistance under the ZBB program,” said Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography.

“I am hopeful that the Senate bicam contingent will accept my proposal, precisely because we responded to the request of the DOH to expand the coverage of the ZBB in LGU hospitals by allocating P1-billion in our version of the 2026 budget,” she stressed. 

She noted that the ZBB program currently only covers the full cost of services provided to patients under basic or ward accommodation in hospitals run by the Department of Health (DOH). 

With the special provision, Hontiveros said more Filipinos will be able to get free hospitalization under the ZBB program.

“Because not only the patients in the 86 DOH hospitals will benefit here, but also our people who also seek the services of a hundred LGU hospitals,” she said.

The senator also said that her proposed special provision would introduce greater reforms in the government’s medical assistance program.

This, she said, forms part of Senate Bill No. 1593 or the Universal Health Care Medical Assistance Program that she recently sponsored in plenary.

“The proposed law aims to directly course the medical assistance to hospitals so they will be the ones to give these to their patients,” she said. 

“Whoever needs the medical assistance will be given immediately. Nothing in returned. No condition. No need for patronage,” she stressed.

Under the bill, patients may apply for medical assistance through registered social workers who must process their application within 72 hours instead of applying for guarantee letters (GLs).