The House Committee on Health has recently endorsed for plenary approval a measure that seeks to stop the privatization and corporatization of all public hospitals, health facilities and health services in the country.
Committee Chairman Rep. Angelina Tan of Quezon said the House Bill 7437, or the “Anti-Privatization of Public Hospitals, Health Facilities and Health Services Act,” seeks to address the inaccessibility and inequality in health care brought about by the privatization of public health services.
The bill enables indigent patients to access quality health care in public hospitals, public health facilities and public health services.
Under the bill, at least 90 percent of the total bed capacity of all public hospitals should be allotted to indigent patients.
It also improves hospital and health-care services without resorting to privatization.
The measures defines privatization as the process in which non-governmental actors become increasingly involved in the financing and provision of health-care services, which include: outright sale, public-private partnership; corporatization; contracting out of equipment; joint venture; franchising; management control and corporatization; and leasing and user charges.
The bill provides liability and accountability to persons who initiates cause and approve the privatization of any hospitals, health facilities and health services
The bill penalizes violators with a fine ranging from P100,000 to P800,000, and suspension of removal from public office.
It also directs the secretary of the Department of Health to promulgate the rules and regulations for the effective implementation of the Act.
Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani T. Zarate of Bayan Muna, principal author of the bill, said the measure aims to protect the right to health of the Filipino people, the poor especially, by maintaining and upholding the public character of government hospitals and by prohibiting any form of their privatization.
“Health care must be made accessible, affordable and appropriate to the needs of the people. Public hospitals, as part of the public health-care delivery system, must be fully developed and strengthened by the government, not privatized,” Zarate said.
“This bill is a major step to address the inaccessibility and inequity in health care made worse by privatization of public health services,” he added.
According to Zarate, the lower chamber is expected to approve the bill when session resumes on May 14.