MAKING poor health choices can be costly and life threatening. In 2015 alone, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Filipinos spent $716 million for the treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), particularly diabetes.
ADB Vice President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development Bambang Susantono said NCDs are now considered the leading cause of death among Asia-Pacific countries.
“Marked by their chronic, long-term nature, NCDs are placing increasing strains on health systems of our developing member-countries. They are posing financial risks to governments,” Susantono said at the opening ceremonies for the three-day Innovations and Actions against NCDs event on Monday.
“They are hampering economic growth and putting at risk the economic gains, and reduced poverty and inequality that Asia and Pacific have admiringly achieved,” he added.
Health Undersecretary Rolando Enrique D. Domingo also said the Philippines needs to address the rising prevalence of NCDs since these shorten the life span of Filipinos.
Domingo said based on the NCD Progress Monitor 2017 of the World Health Organization (WHO), around 68 percent of Filipino deaths are due to NCDs.
Further, nearly a third, or 29 percent, of the Philippine population do not reach the age of 70 because of NCDs.
Obese adults in Asia
Efforts to address the threat of NCDs are not limited to the Philippines, however. Susantono said 62 percent of all overweight people reside in a developing country.
He added Asia and the Pacific is home to the largest absolute number of overweight and obese people. One billion, or about 2 out of 5 adults, in Asia are considered overweight.
Domingo added that in Southeast Asia alone, NCDs have claimed around 7.9 million lives, or 55 percent of deaths in 2014.
“It is my hope that these disturbing numbers compel us to realize that it is imperative upon us to make the most out of this initiative led by the ADB—to identify priority interventions and, likewise, discuss how to effectively channel resources and investments to successfully implement such,” he said.
In a presentation, Thaksaphon Tha-marangsi of the WHO Regional Office for Southeast Asia said NCDs create various problems concerning health and human capital as well as lead to societal and opportunity costs.
Addressing these problems requires financing. However, Thamarangsi said that as the increase in NCDs surpassed the hike in the prevalence of communicable diseases (CD), funding for NCD prevention and control has been scant.
Official development assistance (ODA) for NCDs reached $5.71 billion between 2007 and 2016. However, the funds were not used in places where they were needed the most.
East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia account for 31.8 percent and 23.1 percent of NCD disability-adjusted life year (DALY), or overall disease burden. These two regions received the least in ODA.
Of the $5.71 billion, Thamarangsi said East Asia and the Pacific only received 5.3 percent of the total and South Asia, 2.7 percent, during the period.
To address NCDs, he said many countries have used various innovations to raise funds. These solutions include the introduction of “sin taxes.”
In the Philippines, the country taxes tobacco, alcohol and, recently, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.
In the case of tobacco use, these are accompanied by the placing of pictorial warnings, market control, the ban on public smoking and an aggressive public campaign.
Interventions also include controlling the physical availability of certain products, as well as changing the formulation of products, such as the reduction in salt content of some products.
“We need to champion disease prevention through information and advocacy campaigns. We need to take part in managing NCDs by becoming champions of healthy living,” Domingo said.
‘Hike tobacco tax’
Social Watch Philippines (SWP) urged Sen. Juan Edgardo M. Angara, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, to call for public hearings on tobacco sin tax increase.
Senate Bill 1599, filed by Sen. Emmanuel D. Pacquiao, and Senate Bill 1605, filed by Sen. Joseph Victor G. Estrada, respectively, have not been tackled since last year.
SWP believes that Angara must understand the urgency of enacting the unitary tobacco sin tax increase because the measure will finance the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Bill, which is now certified by the President as a priority legislative agenda.
The group sees no need to wait for the implementation of the Department of Finance’s TRAIN 2 package, because legislation to increase tobacco sin tax can stand alone so as to provide focus and primacy on the issue of health.
“The insertion in TRAIN 1 package of the P2.50, or P5.00, annual increase on tobacco excise tax will not be sufficient to fund the proposed UHC Program even if other proposed resources are pooled such as from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., [Pagcor], the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office [PCSO] and medical assistance program,” the SWP said.
Section 5 of Senate Bill 60 authored by Sen. Ralph G. Recto provides the fund sources of the UHC but again, this will not ensure full implementation of UHC.
Currently, SWP said the government lacks P200 billion for the annual implementation of UHC, of which, only P30 billion may come from the charity portfolio of Pagcor and the PCSO.
With reports from Marc de la Paz and Pearl Anne Gumapos