Pangasinan is no. 1 province in health insurance
LINGAYEN–Pangasinan now stands as the leader among all provinces in the country in providing health insurance to indigent citizens who cannot afford to pay for hospital bills.
This was announced by Dr. Eduardo Banzon, president of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) who was here on June 4 to sign a memorandum of agreement with Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. for the enrollment to PhilHealth for two years of its 86,000 sponsored beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries form part of the 700,000 families now enrolled with PhilHealth all over Pangasinan, which was listed by PhilHealth as among those with the five highest enrollment by a Local Government Unit throughout the country
The other beneficiaries are those listed by the National Housing Targeting System (NHTS) or the 4Ps under the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the formal sector which includes employees of government and private offices; Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and voluntary-paying members.
The signing, which took place at the Urdujua House here was witnessed by Atty. Alexander Padilla, PhilHealth executive vice president and chief operating officer; Daniel de Leon, area vice president-Northern and Central Luzon; Vice Governor Jose Ferdinand Calimlim; and Jeremy Rosario, chairman on the committee on health of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP).
The MOA will cover 86,000 beneficiaries of PhilHealth sponsored by the provincial government that will pay the yearly premium at P2,400 each from the previous P1,200 yearly.
All will be automatically enrolled by LGU Pangasinan under the Partial Subsidy Scheme for two years from Jan. 1, 2012 to December 2013.
Pangasinan is the first province to sign such an agreement under the two-year Partial Subsidy Scheme with PhilHealth.
The provincial board is expected to enact resolutions guaranteeing continuous allocation of funds for its qualified beneficiaries.
HOSPITALS
Meanwhile, Banzon lauded the 14 hospitals operated by the province, such as the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital, which passed what he called the “smell test”.
He said that the PPH is a hospital he would like to be confined in when he gets sick as it is one that “does not smell like a hospital”.
Banzon congratulated Espino for his initiatives to improve all the hospitals operated by the province and for adopting health care as his number one priority.
The PhilHealth president noted that LGUs are now investing heavily in hospitals because they know that PhilHealth will support them.
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