By Edgardo J. Angara
A RECENT report by a US-based global humanitarian organization revealed that only a third of Filipino children under the age of 5 get basic health care, making the country one of the worst places for infants and mothers.
Children born in the Philippines are three times more vulnerable to disease and death than their welloff counterparts as they are more likely to go without essential health care, according to Save the Children International. The country’s survival rate is comparable to the infant mortality rates of black infants in the US states of Michigan, Delaware and Wisconsin, where a black baby is over three times more likely to die compared with a white baby.
The report said that 26,000 Filipino children under the age of 5 could be saved each year, if we are able to bridge the continuing disparity between the health care received by a rich child and a poor child.
Poor families usually forego health care and use their meager resources to put food on the table. And with food taking up about two-thirds of a poor family’s income amidst soaring food prices, it is no wonder that they are unable to afford even basic health care for their children: A national government survey indicates that 3 out of 10 children below two years old have not received the recommended vaccinations. Full vaccination rate has likewise declined. The national estimates for the prevalence of malnutrition reveal that 31 out of every 100 preschool-age children and 33% of all school-age children are underweight for their age.
There are about 33 million children in the country, and 14 million of them are considered poor. The state simply cannot afford to neglect the health of our country’s children, if we hope to raise a strong and productive future generation.
In the Senate, I propose a mandatory health insurance program for Filipino children of low-income families through the establishment of a Children’s Health Insurance Program or CHIP.
CHIP will complement the existing PhilHealth, which I authored in 1995. It will provide children with a full range of health services like regular checkups, immunization, prescription drugs, laboratory tests, X-rays, hospital and clinic visits, medical equipment, even dental and eye care.
Under the present PhilHealth Act, all senior citizens, including indigents, are provided with access to health services. But with the proposed CHIP, the country’s health services would now also cover children under the age of 5, rescuing one of the most uninsured members of our population from a health crisis.
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