The two landmark bills, the creation of Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and the Universal Healthcare Program bill are expected to be ratified on November 12, 2018.
During a press conference at The Grand Regal Hotel on Tuesday, Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito said there is both bills would be ratified by both lower and upper house after the Senate break.
He said after the ratification, it will be ready for President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature to before the end of the year.
“I considered this as a fulfillment of a promise, from way back 2013 for Filipinos to have a better life. So these two bills are fulfillment to a dream,” he said.
The bill to create a Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development aims to bring all key shelter agencies in one department to have an efficient implementation of the housing projects and address the housing backlog.
“So hopefully under the Department of Human Settlement or Department of housing, we will have one direction, we will have one roadmap in the housing sector,” he said.
Meanwhile the Universal Healthcare Program bill aims to provide good quality healthcare for all Filipinos.
“Once signed, this will have a100 percent coverage for all Filipino. Once you are a Filipino you will be automatically become a member of the National Health Insurance also known as Philhealth,” he said.
He said that the bill also aims to lower the payments of the Filipinos when it comes to healthcare because this bill will increase the benefits from 20 percent to 30 percent or even 50 percent.
The universal healthcare fund will come from the Department of Health’s medical assistance, subsidy of PhilHealth, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) fund and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) fund.
“We will have a more strategic and evenly distributed assistance to Filipinos,” he said.
Another inclusion of this bill is the extended health coverage of PhilHealth. Once the bill is signed, PhilHealth can cover the medical expenses for in medical checkups and laboratory tests.
“We also included the improvement of medical facilities in public hospitals in the bill,” he added.
He assures the public that every Filipino can benefit from the universal healthcare bill regardless the location in or out the country.
“Assurance is that it will be 100 percent coverage as long as you are Filipino, you should be covered. You don’t need to be a member, you do not need to apply. As for the geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, if there are no government hospitals in the area then they can go to PhilHealth accredited hospitals will service those areas,” he said.
The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development bill and the Universal Healthcare Program bill were approved on October 8, 2018 and October 10, 2018 respectively.
