Latest news with #UHC
GMA Network
8 hours ago
- Health
- GMA Network
JV seeks P74.4-B supplemental budget for PhilHealth to sustain zero-balance billing
Senator JV Ejercito called Wednesday for the passage of a measure seeking to provide an additional P74.4 billion subsidy for the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) in order to sustain the zero-balance billing promise of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law. This, as President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., in his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), announced that the government will cover all expenses incurred by Filipinos at Department of Health (DOH) hospitals. Ejercito, author and principal sponsor of the UHC Act, said that the supplemental budget for Philhealth topped with additional allocation for hospitals are key to the fulfillment of such. 'Sana ngayon ay totohanin na ang pagbibigay ng importansya sa UHC. Nandiyan na ang batas. Ang kulang na lang ay agresibong implementasyon at pondo,' the senator said in a statement. (I hope now that giving importance to UHC will soon be realized. The law is already there. What only needs to be done is aggressive implementation and funding.) 'Panawagan ko sa aking mga kasamahan sa Kongreso at kay Pangulong Marcos, agad natin ipasa ang supplemental budget para sa PhilHealth,' Ejercito added. 'Pondohan natin ngayon para masigurong wala nang babayaran kahit isang sentimo ang mga pasyente sa mga DOH hospital para sa basic accommodation.' (I call on my colleagues in Congress and President Marcos to immediately pass the supplemental budget for PhilHealth. Let's fund it now to ensure that patients in DOH hospitals will not have to pay a single cent for basic accommodation.) Included in Ejercito's priority bills for the 20th Congress is the measure proposing a P74.4 billion Supplemental Appropriations for PhilHealth. Under the proposed bill, PhilHealth premiums will be funded for indigent families, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and financially incapable patients, amounting to P53.1 billion. Meanwhile, a P21.2 billion will be allocated for the enhanced benefit packages including expanded dialysis, mental health care, nutrition support, and outpatient services, and an additional P127.6 million will be provided for the coverage for PAMANA beneficiaries in conflict-affected areas. Health Secretary Ted Herbosa earlier said that the zero-balance billing is currently being implemented in 87 DOH hospitals across the country, excluding the four government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCC), namely the Philippine Heart Center, Philippine Lung Center, National Kidney Transplant Institute, and the Philippine Children's Medical Center. Herbosa said that to avail of the zero-balance billing, a patient must be admitted to the basic accommodation or the ward of a DOH hospital. 'Basta 'wag lang kayo nasa private, kasi pag nagpunta ka sa private may bayad yung doctor, may bayad yung room. Basta nasa basic accommodation ka ng DOH, bayad na ang bill mo,' he said in a post-SONA discussion on Tuesday. (As long as you are not in a private hospital where you have to pay the doctor and the room. As long as you are at the basic accommodation of DOH, the bill has already been paid.) The DOH said it started zero-balance billing in DOH hospitals on May 14, or before it was even announced by the President during his fourth SONA on Monday, July 28. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News
Scoop
5 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Remove Systemic Blockers To Enable Access For Women To Economic And Labour Markets
Unless we remove systemic discrimination, disadvantages and patriarchal barriers, how would we ensure that women and gender diverse peoples in all their diversities are equitably and justly able to access economic markets and labour markets? Economic justice is critical cog-in-the-wheel for development justice. At the recently concluded intergovernmental meet on financing for development, the outcome document mentions about the importance of "access of women to economic markets, labour markets and the importance of women for the potential benefit that they can bring to the economy, but it does not address the systemic discrimination and disadvantages that women and girls face when trying to access the labour markets and economic markets. These goals cannot be realised unless the principles of decent work and safeguards for fundamental human rights at workplaces of girls, women and gender diverse peoples are not assured," said Zainab Shumail of Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). "The outcome document does mention to increasing investment in the care economy and equitably redistribute the disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work done by women, the reference itself does not meet the most progressive existing standards in terms of language on care which the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) has set out. For example, the outcome document calls on governments to 'recognise, value and equitably redistribute' whereas the ILO calls to 'recognise, redistribute, reduce reward and represent unpaid care and domestic work'. This shows a missed opportunity for governments to advance normative frameworks and commitments to care economy within the text of outcome document," said Swetha Sridhar, Senior Global Policy Research Officer at Fos Feminista. Let us not forget that the linkage between gender equality, human rights and SDGs is especially critical in the context of achieving SDGs in the next 5 years. We need gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, and bodily autonomy to be reflected in conversations on development and development financing urgently. And as Swetha Sridhar pointed out, without major reforms and restructuring of the international financial architecture, the implementation of the outcome document of fourth financing for development meet, will continue to advance the current problematic financial norms, while economic, gender, and reproductive justice will remain unattainable for women, girls, and gender diverse individuals. Unless we go for structural reforms, stop privatisation of public services – so that public health, education and social support are fully funded – how will we deliver on SDGs where no one is left behind? Governments say yes to UHC but no mention of reproductive health and bodily autonomy? While the document commits to increasing investment in universal health coverage and inclusive, equitable, affordable, quality and resilient health systems, there is no mention of sexual and reproductive health and rights or how this idea of universal health coverage will be rolled out in the context of increased spending on militarisation, added Swetha Sridhar. Mabel Bianco, senior physician activist from Latin America and Founding President of FEIM re-echoed that "if we are not having sexual and reproductive health and rights recognised - including access to safe abortion- it is not possible to reach development." Thirty years ago, world leaders made a promise at the Fourth World Conference on Women for achieving equal rights, opportunities, power, and safety for women and girls everywhere. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action also enshrined that promise to achieve equal rights of ALL women and girls. And yet where are we today? The outcome document of fourth financing for development meet is a setback to these promises made decades ago - and also - fails to deliver on feminist agenda. Widening funding gap for SDGs Based on the current trend developing countries are falling short by an estimated USD 420 billion a year to achieve gender equality as envisioned in the Sustainable Development Goals. According to UN Women, this shortfall is rooted in chronic underfunding, ineffective tracking of spending and inequitable global financing rules that divert resources away from the world's poorest countries, where most low-income women live. Reducing gender inequalities and guaranteeing the human rights of women and groups suffering exclusion and discrimination requires a transformative fiscal policy, both nationally and globally. But the outcome document of financing for development meet this year failed on various fronts to address these global challenges. It falls short of ushering in an economic system rooted in care, justice, and equality, says Misun Woo, Regional Coordinator, APWLD. It is also silent on safeguards, corporate abuses and preventing gender-based violence in the workplace and only offers band-aid solutions that perpetuate the violence of capitalism. Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator of Asian People's Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), rued that the FfD4 outcome document was a 'done deal' as it had already been finalised at least two weeks before the meet began, and governments did not make any major decisions that changed the text that had been already negotiated even before the governments began the in-person meet. Lidy said that there was a lack of transparency throughout the whole negotiation process at this meet. Its outcome document was influenced and shaped by the Global North countries - the 'blockers' of any real progress. According to her, absence of accountability and restrictions of civil society participation were major impediments. With no civil society space at this intergovernmental meet, feminists and other civil society activists were forced to mobilise and stage historical actions inside the meeting venue. "Meeting outcomes failed to make any meaningful progress on establishing a global financing framework that was centred on human rights and upheld the principle of CBDR (Common But Differentiated Responsibilities). The outcome document failed to make meaningful progress on environmental harm caused by colonialism, patriarchy, slavery, and resource extraction from the Global South. Outcome document also failed to prioritise public financing for high quality essential services and move beyond an over reliance on private finance to fill in development financing gaps. It failed to address the equity for income distribution. And it failed to call for reparations for the economic and environmental harm caused by colonialism, patriarchy, slavery, and resource extraction from the global south. The outcome document did not take on ecological and climate breakdown as cross-cutting issues. It did not clearly acknowledge the need to phase out fossil fuels', said Lidy. Shereen Talaat, Founder and Director of Middle East and North Africa Feminist Movement for Economic, Development and Ecological Justice, lamented that gender equality financing dropped to 42% of official development assistance in 2022 and only 4% of it had gender as a primary objective and less than 1% reached feminist and women rights organisations. Meanwhile, conflict-related sexual violence is up by 50%, as women face war and displacements. Shereen reiterated that the outcome document of fourth financing for development does not matter for people, especially those from the Global South. It only matters for existing global economic and capitalist systems. These issues were discussed at a SHE & Rights (Sexual Health with Equity & Rights) session co-hosted by International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) 2025, Family Planning News Network (FPNN), Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR), Asia Pacific Media Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT Media) and CNS. There was a general consensus among the speakers that overall the outcome document of fourth financing for development meet lacks genuine ambition for systemic transformation. It is painfully clear that a gender and human rights approach to financing was not mainstreamed in the text and the idea of feminist values were completely missing. There is a long way ahead for feminist restructuring of the global financial architecture. Top down decision making has to be replaced with women, girls, and all gender diverse peoples becoming co-creators and co-leaders of a gender-just and rights-based economic future. The global financial architecture should be based on care, human rights, justice and reparations. It should replace the current colonial financial architecture that continues to use unsustainable and illegitimate debt as a tool of oppression, and undermines peace. Also, as the Political Declaration of the Feminist Forum organised ahead of the fourth financing for development meet had rightly said, no real financing justice can be reached without an urgent end to escalating wars, territorial invasions and genocides. Let us make frustration our energy We must heed Mabel Bianco's request to not be frustrated and think that we lost (at fourth financing for development meet): 'We lose when we stop fighting. Our challenge is to make the frustration our energy so that we can go on and continue fighting for gender equality and human rights. Most importantly we need to multiply manifold in order to fight at national level to ensure gender equality becomes a reality where no one is left behind." Shobha Shukla – CNS (Citizen News Service) (Shobha Shukla is a feminist, health and development justice advocate, and an award-winning founding Managing Editor and Executive Director of CNS (Citizen News Service). She was also the Lead Discussant for SDG-3 at United Nations High Level Political Forum (HLPF 2025). She is a former senior Physics faculty of prestigious Loreto Convent College; current President of Asia Pacific Regional Media Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT Media); Chairperson of Global AMR Media Alliance (GAMA received AMR One Health Emerging Leaders and Outstanding Talents Award 2024); and coordinator of SHE & Rights (Sexual Health with Equity & Rights). Follow her on Twitter/X @shobha1shukla or read her writings here
Focus Malaysia
21-07-2025
- Health
- Focus Malaysia
World-class healthcare at affordable prices draws foreign patients
MALAYSIA has strategically positioned itself as a leading healthcare destination on the global stage, attracting a growing number of international patients seeking high-quality, affordable medical care combined with a pleasant travel experience. 'The country's healthcare sector is also attractive for investments, underpinned by several key factors,' said MBSB in a recent report. Among them are the world-class quality medical care and advanced facilities, high accreditation and standards that ensures adherence to global benchmarks for patient safety and quality of care and the high-skilled professionals trained in leading institutions globally. Also, Malaysia has state-of-the-art technology allowing advanced treatments across various specialties, affordable and competitive pricing for treatments, often offering savings of over 50% for similar procedures to Western countries and regional counterparts. The healthcare sector also has regulated cost on certain procedures and services, transparent healthcare plans, easy accessibility and connectivity to medical facilities, and easy communication due to multilingual and multicultural medical staff. Malaysia as a global halal hub, promotes halal-certified medications and respect for patient modest, and it will benefit from the booming medical tourism, supported by upmost hospitality. However, the country is moving from a developing to a high-income nation, and its healthcare system is grappling with the complexities that come with this transition. The epidemiological shift from communicable to NCDs, coupled with an aging population, reflects a maturing society that now faces diseases of affluence and lifestyle. The challenges are no longer just about basic access (which has largely been achieved in Peninsular Malaysia), but about quality, efficiency, equity, and sustainability in the face of rising costs and demand. Malaysia is not adhering rigidly to one ideological model (fully public or fully private). Instead, it's embracing a pragmatic, dual-tier system with increasing public-private partnerships (PPPs). The government's continued heavy subsidization of public healthcare and the active pursuit of UHC through various initiatives (PeKaB40, SPM, National Health Fund exploration) demonstrate a fundamental commitment to ensuring that healthcare remains a right for all citizens, not just a privilege. This is evident by the Budget 2025's allocation of RM45.3b for the local healthcare sector. The willingness to address high OOP payments also directly signifies a focus on financial risk protection for its citizens. MoH's emphasis on digitalization, data analytics, and value-based healthcare also indicates a forward-looking approach, recognizing that technology and efficiency are critical for future sustainability. Beyond providing care for its citizens, Malaysia actively promotes itself as a leading healthcare destination. As of writing, Malaysia was announced as the number one destination for medical tourism, with over RM2 bil revenue generated per year on average from over 1.3 bil foreigners seeking medical help using local facilities and infrastructure for treatments and surgeries. This also demonstrates an understanding of healthcare's dual role as a social service and a significant contributor to the national economy, attracting foreign exchange and creating high-value jobs. The Global Halal Hub aspect further showcases a strategic niche marketing approach that caters to specific global demographics. All in all, Malaysia is in a critical phase of healthcare transformation. It has a strong foundation, a clear understanding of its complex challenges, and an ambitious roadmap for reform. The success of this journey will depend on its ability to effectively implement these strategic changes, foster collaboration between its public and private sectors, and sustain the political will to navigate the inherent difficulties of such comprehensive reforms, ultimately aiming for a truly equitable, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare system for all its people. We reiterate our positive call for the sector, backed by the strong drivers that will continue to feed the sector's growth in the near term. —July 21, 2025 Main image: Arab Watch Coalition
Zawya
17-07-2025
- Health
- Zawya
Sierra Leone moves closer to Universal Health Coverage with high-level engagement on draft Sierra Leone Agency for Universal Health Coverage (SLAUHC) Bill
Sierra Leone has taken a critical step toward advancing Universal Health Coverage (UHC) with the convening of a high-level policy dialogue on the draft Sierra Leone Agency for Universal Health Coverage (SLAUHC) Bill. Organized on 6 May 2025 by the Ministry of Health with support from the World Health Organization (WHO), the one-day engagement brought together over 60 senior leaders in Freetown, including ministers, directors, and technical heads from across the health sector. The proposed SLAUHC Bill outlines the establishment of a dedicated agency that will integrate and manage two major national health financing mechanisms, the Free Healthcare Initiative (FHCI) and the Sierra Leone Social Health Insurance Scheme (SLeSHI). The unified governance structure aims to address current fragmentation, improve the efficiency of health financing, and accelerate the country's progress toward achieving UHC. 'This Bill is a transformative step in Sierra Leone's journey toward sustainable health financing,' said Dr. Ibrahim F. Kamara, speaking on behalf of the WHO Country Representative. 'It will strengthen institutional capacity, enhance accountability, and ensure equitable access to health services, particularly for the most vulnerable populations.' The engagement served three key objectives: a comprehensive review of the draft legislation, consensus-building among stakeholders, and alignment with the Ministry of Health's UHC Roadmap and SLeSHI implementation framework. The outcome is a consolidated and informed policy position ahead of the bill's submission to the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC). Chief Medical Officer Dr Sartie Kenneh emphasized the importance of a comprehensive and inclusive approach to UHC: 'the name and scope of the bill must reflect the broader dimensions required to achieve UHC. While health financing is a critical pillar, it is only one part of the equation. No healthcare service is truly free, while it may be free at the point of delivery, someone ultimately bears the cost. Therefore, we must collectively design a sustainable health financing model that ensures long-term viability. It is also prudent to allow the Free Healthcare Initiative and the Social Health Insurance Scheme to operate in tandem, to optimize coverage and ensure the full spectrum of healthcare costs is addressed.' The proposed SLAUHC Agency responds to longstanding structural challenges in the health financing landscape. Currently, out-of-pocket payments account for 56% of total health expenditure, well above the sub-Saharan Africa average of 30%. Less than 1% of Sierra Leone's population is covered by any social health protection scheme, exposing many to catastrophic health spending and pushing households further into poverty. Moreover, with 75% of health financing reliant on donor contributions, ensuring coherence with national priorities remains a pressing issue. The draft bill is grounded in the Ministry's Health Financing Strategy 2021–2025, which calls for the creation of a Universal Health Coverage Fund, integration with SLeSHI, and the development of operational and regulatory systems to support long-term health sector sustainability. WHO has reaffirmed its full technical support to the Ministry in the finalization and operationalization of the SLAUHC Bill. This includes support for institutional design, capacity strengthening, cost-containment mechanisms, and the establishment of care quality and priority-setting frameworks. Once enacted, the SLAUHC Agency will serve as a central institution for resource mobilization, regulation of financial flows, and oversight of major health benefit programs. It is expected to play a pivotal role in improving efficiency, transparency, and equity in health service delivery. This high-level dialogue marks a significant milestone in Sierra Leone's health sector reform agenda. It paves the way for the establishment of a National Health Insurance Scheme and reinforces the country's commitment to achieving health for all, leaving no one behind. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of WHO Regional Office for Africa.
Forbes
15-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
From Reaction To Resilience: What Comes After Executive Protection?
By Matt Hinton and Justin Cruz The tragic killing of the UnitedHealthcare (UHC) Chief Executive Officer on December 4, 2024, marked a pivotal moment for corporate security. In the aftermath, boards of directors across industries moved swiftly, asking tough questions about the safety of executives. Organizations responded with urgency, deploying protective measures to safeguard their leadership in the office, at home and everywhere in between. For many organizations, this swift mobilization underscored a long-overdue recognition of the vulnerabilities faced by high-profile executives and the strategic imperative to address them at the highest levels of governance. Now, with foundational executive security protocols in place, critical questions emerge: What should organizations prioritize to ensure long-term resilience and executive safety? How can responsive measures evolve into new or enhanced executive security programs with a clear vision for protecting the organization? The answer lies in transitioning from reactive protection to proactive preparedness—an evolution that demands strategic foresight, cross-functional collaboration and a holistic approach to risk management. (Re)establishing the Protective Foundation In the immediate wake of December 4, organizations acted decisively to fortify their executive protection capabilities. This initial phase focused predominantly on physical security: evaluating threats to key executives, standing up or enhancing executive protection programs and protocols, deploying close protection personnel, and upgrading office and residential security infrastructure. These measures, while essential, were largely reactive. Now is the opportunity for organizations to go beyond the initial reactive measures and reassess the broader threat landscape not only to their executives, but to their people, buildings, intellectual property, and brand. This means (re)establishing sustainable physical security capabilities that are commensurate with their risk exposures. Core areas such as access control systems, enhanced visitor management, travel security protocols, intel, and incident response planning must be evaluated and incorporated into an organization's security foundation to protect the enterprise as a whole. Executive protection Expanding the Definition of Protection: Digital and Psychological Dimensions In an increasingly interconnected world, executive exposure extends far beyond physical proximity. Digital footprints, social media activity and publicly accessible personal information have become vectors for harassment, impersonation and reputational harm. Moreover, the psychological toll of persistent threat awareness can impair executive performance and decision-making. It is no longer sufficient to focus only on physical security – companies must take a holistic approach to identifying and managing threats to executives. To address these challenges, organizations must broaden their executive security strategies to include: Comprehensive protection must encompass an executive's digital identity and mental well-being, recognizing that threats to reputation and psychological safety can be as damaging as physical harm. Similarly, effective protection measures need to be integrated throughout the business and take a strategic, enterprise-wide approach led by proactive intelligence and risk assessments. Addressing Insider Threats and Workplace Violence Many executive protection programs are designed to address external threats such as activists, stalkers and aggrieved individuals. However, many serious threats emerge internally, including disgruntled employees, insider sabotage and workplace violence. These threats are often underestimated but have the potential to cause tremendous harm. Organizations should prioritize designing and implementing formal workplace violence prevention and response programs featuring: More formal and holistic insider risk capabilities can be developed that incorporate these workplace violence prevention and response capabilities as an organization matures. Programs can leverage these capabilities to look at other sources of insider threat (e.g., fraud, IP theft, etc.) in an integrated and comprehensive way. By expanding their scope to include internal as well as external threats, organizations can build real resilience and ensure a systemic and coordinated approach to both executive and enterprise security. Reinforcing Crisis Management Capabilities As organizations reassess their executive protection strategies, it is imperative that they also revisit and modernize their crisis management frameworks. The threats facing today's enterprises—ranging from targeted violence and cyberattacks to reputational crises and geopolitical disruptions—require a coordinated, agile and well-rehearsed response. Many crisis management plans were designed for a different era, and often focused on natural disasters or operational failures. In the current environment, these plans must be refreshed and stress-tested to ensure they are fit for purpose. Plans should be all-hazards in nature and align to the organization's culture and business-as-usual operating models. A critical component of this refresh is the regular exercising of crisis response teams against high-impact, plausible scenarios. These exercises—whether tabletop simulations or full-scale drills—are essential for: Reinvigorating Enterprise Risk Management Protective efforts must be grounded in a strong enterprise risk management (ERM) foundation. In many organizations, ERM functions have become fragmented or under-resourced, if they even existed in the first place. Without a clear, enterprise-wide view of risk, it becomes difficult to determine what threats are being monitored, prioritized or even acknowledged. This lack of visibility undermines both executive security and crisis preparedness. Reinvigorating ERM—ensuring it is integrated, data-informed and aligned with strategic objectives—is critical to identifying blind spots, allocating resources effectively and ensuring that protection efforts move from reactive to forward-looking. ERM should be the unifying framework that brings together otherwise siloed risk management efforts across an enterprise…if done correctly. For ERM to guide protection meaningfully, it cannot be a 'check-the-box' exercise or based on historical points of view. In order to add value, it must be strategic in nature and closely tied to the organization's core business objectives and growth. For organizations not sure where to begin, ERM can start with: The Strategic Imperative: Advancing Threat & Protective Intelligence Enterprise and executive security capabilities are drastically augmented when supported by mature threat and protective intelligence operations. To move beyond a reactive footing, organizations must invest in these intelligence disciplines and shift them from niche capabilities to a key corporate function integrated throughout the organization. Modern threat and protective intelligence functions should work side-by-side and integrate behavioral threat assessment, open-source intelligence (OSINT), and continuous monitoring of online venues to provide a comprehensive view of an organization's current threat landscape. This allows an organization to identify, assess and manage potential threats to executives and assets before they materialize, and enables security teams to make risk-based decisions. Key components of an integrated threat and protective intelligence program include: However, protective intelligence is not merely a conglomerate of technology solutions. It requires skilled analysts capable of interpreting nuanced data and collaborating cross-functionally with human resources, legal, corporate security and information security to ensure timely and effective intervention. When deployed correctly, threat and protective intelligence become decision-making filters that allow an organization to intervene early while also reducing blind spots, breaking down silos between departments, and ensuring that teams are positioned to anticipate risk scenarios rather than responding to them. Conclusion: From Protection to Strategic Preparedness The events of December 2024 serve as a stark reminder of the evolving threat landscape facing corporate leaders. While the rapid deployment of executive protection measures was both necessary and commendable, it represents only the first step. To ensure enduring safety and organizational resilience, organizations must now pivot toward strategic preparedness—a forward-looking approach that integrates intelligence, digital security, psychological support, crisis readiness and cultural transformation. In doing so, they will not only safeguard their executives but also fortify their institutions against the complex risks of the modern era. Matt Hinton is a Partner at Control Risks. He heads the North American Crisis and Security Consulting practice. He assists organizations with key risk and resilience matters, including crisis management and corporate security. Justin Cruz is a Senior Consultant in Control Risks' Crisis and Security Consulting practice, based in New York City. Justin focuses on establishing and growing physical security, executive protection, and threat intelligence programs.
