Government’s Looks to ADB for $400 Million Loan to Improve Healthcare

The government is looking to improve the quality and accessibility of health services in the country through its universal health-care program, which they hope would be funded by a $400 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

According to the documents of ADB, the Philippines’ universal health-care program (subprogram 1) falls within the lines of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act of 2019.

The Department of Health (DOH) is expected to be the primary implementer of the loan which “will support the implementation of wide-ranging policy, legal, regulatory, institutional, financing, service delivery, and performance monitoring reforms envisaged in the UHC Act to achieve and sustain UHC,” said the ADB.

ADB further explained that the UHC Law “envisions a new health-care financing and service delivery architecture with the national government, local government units, and the private sector working together to achieve its objectives.”

It should be noted that the country’s healthcare system has long been riddled with various pressures long before the outbreak of the global pandemic. Some of these include “insufficient government financing and uncoordinated health purchasing operations, inadequate and fragmented health services, and weak information management and accountability at the national and local government levels,” noted the ADB.

In 2019, it was reported that the country’s health expenditures were only equivalent to 4.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP). This was well below the global average of 9.8% and the average for middle-income countries of 5.1%.

“These constraints have been highlighted during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by the insufficient hospital treatment capacity, poor contact tracing, and high hospital user fees,” said the ADB.

Source: Inquirer