Senator Edgardo Angara Thursday renewed his call for the passage of a measure amending the government’s National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) or the PhilHealth Act to cover children of indigent families in need of proper health care.

Angara, author of the PhilHealth law in 1995, said the bill aims to expand the coverage of the PhilHealth by establishing the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

The measure basically aims to increase and expand the scope and coverage of PhilHealth to cover one of the “most uninsured members of our population” – the children.

Angara claims there are at least 14 million poor children who stand to benefit in this measure.

“Poor families, especially during times of financial difficulties, would usually forego health care and put their resources into food. But the state cannot afford to neglect the health of our country’s children, if we hope to raise a strong and productive future generation,” Angara said.

“We need to make our children not only dependents of health insurance but beneficiaries themselves.

Through this program, the government can significantly increase its investments in health thereby rescuing our young from a health crisis,” he added.

Angara said the CHIP bill would complement the existing PhilHealth program by providing children access to a full range of health services such as regular medical check-ups, immunization, medicine, laboratory tests, x-rays, hospital and clinic visits, durable medical equipment, hospital visits and dental and eye care.