With Budget Cuts, ‘Corporatization’ of Health Care, Aquino Backs Out of ‘Health for All’ Promise

With Budget Cuts, ‘Corporatization’ of Health Care, Aquino Backs Out of ‘Health for All’ Promise

 “Health is about people, not profits. The provision of health services should never be contingent on the patient’s ability to pay or the public hospital’s capacity to generate its own income. The provision of health services should be guaranteed by government to its people.” –- Health Alliance for Democracy

By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA –- If Filipinos had dreamed that public health care may improve under the new Aquino government, which packaged itself as an agent of change with a “health for all” agenda during the election campaign, its 2010 performance would come as a nasty shock. The recently signed national budget and the cuts it inflicted on public health spending for 2011 signify the opposite of change.

“We are hoping for change that will move forward, not backward, in terms of providing health for all,” Dr. Geneve Rivera, secretary-general of Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD), earlier said in a statement.

Rather, the Aquino administration is pushing for austerity measures for the sake of bigger debt servicing and military spending. According to Ibon Foundation, an independent economic think tank, the PhP1.645-billion national government budget for 2011 is a PhP104.4-billion or 6.8 percent increase from the proposed budget for 2010. But most of this increase is accounted for by the large PhP80.9 billion increase in interest payments on debt to PhP357.1 billion. This is the largest absolute increase in interest payments in the country’s history and, at a 29.2 percent increase from the year before, is the second largest percentage increase after the 32.6 percent growth in 2000. To pay for this, the government is “retreating from its responsibilities in key areas,” said Ibon.

The biggest retreat seemed to have been on government health services. To appease the striking students who opposed budget cuts on state universities, the Aquino government realigned funds that had been allocated for family health including family planning, rather than touch the highly discretionary, “vague, huge lump-sum funds.” Activists contend that there should never be a clash between equally important services of the government.

Abdicating Responsibility on Health
Health advocates in 2010 repeatedly brought the peoples’ “health agenda” to President Benigno Aquino III before and after he was sworn into office. They also held a dialogue with the new health secretary, Dr. Enrique Ona, who promised them that he would ask for a P60-billion ($1.4b) budget at least. It was P30 billion ($684m) short of the P90-billion ($2.1b) “required budget” for the health sector being demanded by progressive health groups, but the actual health department proposal and what was subsequently approved were just a third of this P90 billion ($2.1b) “realistically” needed and feasible budget..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2010/12/31/with-budget-cuts-corporatization-of-health-care-aquino-backs-out-of-health-for-all-promise/