Suchergebnisse

COVID-19 risk assessment is multi-faceted. The highly infectious nature of the virus in a naïve population, the high case fatality rate and health system over-burdening each need to be considered in developing a strategy to control the spread of the virus and mitigate its health and economic consequences. This note provides a framework for classifying LGUs by degree of risk and identifies policy options for each risk scenario. It urges the Department of Health (DOH) to: (i) re-assess risk levels of local government units (LGUs), (ii) undertake a 100 percent identification of place of residence of all COVID-19 confirmed cases and 100 percent reporting of number of isolation beds and ventilators by all hospitals, and (iii) develop and immediately implement a COVID-specific disease surveillance protocol, including mass testing, contact tracing, and quarantine. Careful and diligent implementation of these protocols will allow a gradual yet cautious and informed re-opening of the economy.

In recent years, the Philippines has seen a rapid expansion of health insurance coverage, especially among the poor. In particular, the implementation of the 2012 Sin Tax Law, which increased tobacco and alcohol excise tax and earmarked most of the incremental revenues for PhilHealth premium subsidies for indigent households, contributed to an increase in the number of families receiving government-subsidized health insurance from 5.2 million to 15.3 million poor families and senior citizens between 2012 and 2015. This paper assesses how people who are eligible for government-subsidized (free) health insurance through Philippines Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) find out about their eligibility and their benefits, and also how well people know the PhilHealth benefits.

In December 2012, the government of the Philippines passed the Sin Tax Law (RA 10351) which restructured and raised tobacco and alcohol taxes, while earmarking 85 percent of the incremental revenues for health. Of this 85 percent, 80 percent was intended to be used to provide free health insurance for poor and near-poor families through the National Health Insurance Program managed by PhilHealth, programs intended to speed progress of the health Millennium Development Goals, and programs to promote health awareness. The remaining 20 percent augments the financing of the Medical Assistance Program of the Department of Health (DOH), which is a hospital-based fund (in the name of mayors, congressmen, and DOH officials) that can be used at the discretion of the facility to cover the medical costs of those who cannot afford to pay, and also the DOH's Health Facilities Enhancement Program which allows the DOH to supplement the local governments' investments in health facilities. This reform was important from a health financing perspective.In November 2014, free health insurance coverage was also extended to the elderly. This paper assesses the extent to which the automatic enrollment of a large number of poor and elderly people into health insurance programs, as a result of the Sin Tax Law, has been associated with an increase in self-reported health insurance coverage, especially among the poorest quintiles and households living below the poverty line.

We investigate the effects of two accountability measures on the decisions of the local governments under decentralization. Using a panel of Philippine municipalities and cities in three election years, we find that term limits have negative but weak effects on the provision of health insurance coverage to poor families and on expenditures on local services. However, yardstick competition (i.e., more subsidized insurance coverage for the poor in neighboring local governments) induces them to cover more poor families, but also reduce other public expenditures. To respond to critiques of health decentralization, our results suggest that the objectives of local politicians can be aligned with those of the health sector. The key insight is the incumbent may extend health insurance coverage like a redistributive transfer to pursue reelection objectives. However, the resulting trade off between subsidized insurance coverage and other public services must be considered.

Using a panel dataset from cities and municipalities in the Philippines in 2001, 2004 and 2007, we investigate whether yardstick competition

Following an earlier paper titled 'Population and Poverty: The Real Score' (UPSE Discussion Paper 0415, December 2004), the present paper was first issued in August 2008 as a contribution to the public debate on the population issue that never seemed to die in this country. The debate heated up about that time in reaction to a revival of moves to push for legislation on reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP). Those attempts at legislation, however, failed in the 13th Congress, and again in the 14th Congress. Since late last year, the debate has been heating up further on the heels of President Noy Aquino's pronouncements seeming to favor RH/FP, though he prefers the nomenclature 'responsible parenthood'. With some updating of the data, this paper remains as relevant as ever to the ongoing public debate. It is being re-issued as a Discussion Paper for wider circulation.