To the poor, health care had simply meant accessing whatever free services were available
at the nearest health facilities. Very few had been able to complete treatments because the
costs of diagnostic tests and medicines came out of their own pockets. Health insurance
was practically unheard of.
But change had come. Significant reforms introduced under the Aquino government saw
Philhealth, the national health insurance program, increasing its coverage to 92% of the
population, the highest since it started in 1995. Half of those now covered are poor
families enrolled under the Indigent Program, their premiums fully subsidized by the
national government using additional revenues from the Sin Tax.
Expanding the benefit packages to cover more illnesses, including catastrophic ones that
require expensive and long-term treatments, has increased PhilHealth's total benefit
payout by three-fold: from P31 billion in 2010 to P97 billion in 2015. Several policies were
put in place to facilitate the access of vulnerable groups—especially poor families and
women about to give birth—to quality healthcare.