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Country Overview
The prevalence and depth of poverty in the Philippines are now declining through accelerated economic growth, but social indicators still vary dramatically across the country according to poverty levels, indicating that national development continues to be dragged down by the situation of the poor.
The main instrument of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHIC or PhilHealth) to address the health problems of the poor in the Philippines is Medicare Para sa Masa (MPM), the Indigent Program of the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP). MPM offers the standard PHIC benefit package to the poor without individual contribution. Although enrollment has grown in the last few years, Medicare Para sa Masa to date covers only a small portion of the estimated poor population in the country. To extend coverage, more funding would be needed and this brings into question the true benefit of the program for the poor families it is meant to help. Back to top
Ongoing Projects Project: P058358 – Second Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood Project
Approval Date: 21 April 2005, Closing Date: 30 June 2012
Estimated Project Cost: US$38 Million
The Second Women's Health and Safe Motherhood Project will contribute to the national goal of improving women's health by demonstrating in selected sites a sustainable, cost-effective model of delivering health services that increases access of disadvantaged women to acceptable and high quality reproductive health services and enables them to safely attain their desired spacing and number of children. The project has the following two components. Component 1) will support local governments in mobilizing networks of public and private providers to deliver the integrated Women's Health and Safe Motherhood service package (WHSM-SP), with focus on maternal care, family planning and STI/HIV control services. The Project will give priority attention to protecting the needs of disadvantaged women. This component will be implemented in six project sites over a period of six years, starting in the first year of the Project with a first batch of three sites (Sorsogon Province, Surigao del Sur Province and Iloilo City) to be followed in the third year of the Project by a second batch of three sites. Component 2) will develop capacity in the DOH to create an operating environment conducive to LGUs managing and sustaining local delivery of the WHSM-SP and facilitate replication of the integrated WHSM service model throughout the country.
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Closed Projects - Project: P004566 -Â Early Childhood Development Project
Approval Date: 24 March 1998, Closing Date: 30 Nov. 2005
The Early Childhood Development (ECD) Project's objectives are (a) to contribute to the attainment of human development goals by providing services that ensure survival and promote the physical and mental development of Filipino children; and (b) to establish an effective partnership between national and local governments in the provision of ECD services. The project components are (a) Service delivery provides program support for provincial local government units (LGUs), which includes an expanded program of immunization package, an integrated management of child illness package, a micronutrient malnutrition prevention and control package, a parent effectiveness service package, and a Grade 1 Early Child Experience(ECE)/ Early Child Development (ECD) package. This component also finances facilities for municipal/city LGUs who wish to invest in upgrading of their ECD services. (b) Support to service delivery supports the LGUs in implementing their investment packages in the areas of communications, planning, targeting, management information system, training, human resource development, and institutional development. (c) Research and development (R&D) finances R&D activities needed to support effective ECD program implementation, including initial piloting of new field-level technical interventions. The World Bank supported part of the project is being implemented in Region VI. A parallel project funded by ADB supports Regions VII and XII.
The project’s most significant achievement is the impact it has had in the terms of learning associated with the delivery of early childhood development programs. A number of new interventions tested under the program, including the 8-week ECE curriculum, improving parent effectiveness, and micro-nutrient food fortification have already been mainstreamed by the implementing agencies. In addition, lessons from several research studies have already been incorporated into the Government’s ECCD program. These include: weekly iron supplementation of school children, adoption of the school readiness tool, use of revised ECCD Checklist as a developmental assessment tool for 0-6 year old children, revised guidelines on Food Supplementation and a resource book on establishing and localizing the ECCD System based on the experiences and lessons learned.
A study conducted points to significant positive impacts of the ECD project in several dimensions, especially with respect to indicators related to the feeding programs, PES, and availability of day-care mothers. These positive impacts can be largely attributed to greater service availability. The Project has also greatly helped to increase awareness on ECD issues and programs. It has heightened recognition of the rights of the child both at the national and local levels, as seen in the 2005 launch of the Bright Child campaign by the President.Â
Back to top Project: P004567 – Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood ProjectApproval Date: 9 March 1995, Closing Date: 30 June 2002 The Women's Health and Safe Motherhood Project’s main objective was to improve the health status of women, with particular focus on women of reproductive age, and thereby support the Government's long-term goals of reducing fertility, female morbidity and maternal mortality. Data from the Benefit Monitoring and Evaluation study show that awareness of delivery care services increased substantially (from 69 to 82 percent). Service data in project barangays showed increases in utilization between 1996 and 2001 for all key services - prenatal visits, postpartum care, iron, Vitamin A and iodine supplementation, use of family planning methods - except for voluntary female sterilization, which showed a disturbing decline during the period. Rates of increase ranged from 14 percent for postpartum visits to 302 percent for iodine supplementation.    Implementation Completion Report Project: P004568 – Urban Health and Nutrition ProjectApproval Date: 8 June 1993, Closing Date: 30 June 2001 The project's development objectives were to (a) improve the health and nutrition status of slum-dwellers in the project cities; (b) build the capacity of city and municipal governments to plan, finance and implement cost-effective slum health and nutrition programs, in partnership with communities, NGOs and the Department of Health (DOH); (c) help slum communities identify their own health, nutrition and environmental problems and participate in planning, implementing and monitoring appropriate interventions; and (d) help DOH develop policies and strategies to improve the reach and cost-effectiveness of health and nutrition delivery systems. At project completion, all facilities were implementing DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short Course Strategy for Tuberculosis). In terms of case detection, most areas were close to the target of 70 percent. Cure rates were going up, but there was quite some variation between LGUs.   Implementation Completion ReportÂ
 Back to top Analytic and Advisory Activities Financing Health Care for Poor Filipinos (2003), Working Paper No. 31341
This paper aims to assess the various channels critical in financing the health care needs of poor Filipinos. Next the paper discusses how public policies can and can not help in facilitating financing of health services for poor Filipinos. The paper is divided into three parts. The first tackles issues related to the definition and identification of the poor and their health concerns. The second part examines a range of issues from family out-of-pocket spending to social health insurance programs. The strengths and weaknesses of each are described using recent data. The third part of the paper considers proposals to introduce health policy reforms and how these might affect access to health care by poor Filipinos. Implementing health policy reforms in localities designated as convergence zones is examined from a political economic perspective.
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