Hospitals to campaign for pro-health Senate bets

MANILA, Philippines - The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAP) has embarked on a campaign to display in front of hospitals the names of senators who support health reforms.

“We want people to know who among senatorial bets will be supporting health programs. Our members can display tarpaulins containing their names,” said PHAP president Rustico Jimenez.

The campaign is similar to the “Team Patay/Team Buhay” of the Diocese of Bacolod, which displayed giant tarpaulins with the names of legislators who voted for and against the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

Jimenez told The STAR they had sent letters to senatorial candidates to get their commitment to “work for the higher retention of income earned by government hospitals.”

The letters stipulate that the candidates shall also make changes in the case rate scheme and “no balance billing” rates of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. for more acceptable terms.

Jimenez said candidates should also commit to work for salary increase and better security of tenure for public health workers, among others.

“On Monday, we will see who signed the letters and we will start displaying the posters. In 2010, I heard many candidates making promises to put health on top of their priority but three years have passed and I don+ft see anyone of them fulfilling their promises.”

‘Vote for Health’

On the other hand, the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) will have the “Vote for Health” campaign at its 60th annual convention next week to inform the public about the pro- and anti-health senatorial candidates.

The Philippine Medical Association and other medical organizations and civil society groups, like Action for Economic Reforms, are backing the campaign.

PCP secretary Anthony Leachon said it is necessary to make a stand this coming elections because of their experience in advocating the passage of the RH and sin tax bills.

“Since the future of our country depends on the leaders we elect, we should not waste time. It just happened that our convention is one week before the election and sin tax advocates had a meeting last week so we thought of coming up with criteria,” Leachon said.

He said since the issue of RH was divisive even among doctors, they thought of making the sin tax the benchmark of their criteria.

“We decided to go for those who made a stand for sin tax, but would also consider their integrity and competence. The most solid criteria is the sin tax which is also one of the biggest bills that we passed in about three decades,” he said.

Leachon said under the plan, they would come up with the profiles of all senatorial candidates, particularly on their stands on health issues, which would be presented during the PCP convention.

“We won't be endorsing any candidate. We'll just be profiling the candidates and let voters choose who they want to vote for.  We really hope that in the next Congress, there will be more pro-health legislators,” he said.