PhilHealth now covers 47 brgys in Roxas City
ROXAS CITY – Eight Thousand Nine Hundred Forty Eight (8,948) indigent families including barangay health workers, day care workers and civilian volunteers in the entire 47 barangays of Roxas City are now covered with health insurance. Mayor Vicente B. Bermejo, in his speech during the ID distribution held last March 23, 2009 at the Dinggoy Roxas Civic Center, commended the members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod who were all present during the ceremony, for their unanimous support in approving the 3 million peso budget allotted for the payment of premiums of said indigent families.
After enrolling these indigent families under the Sponsored Program of PhilHealth starting January 1 to December 31, 2009, their entire family members to include their legal spouse, legitimate or illegitimate children below 21 years old and parents 60 years old and above are now entitled to avail of PhilHealth’sIn- patient benefit packages offered by the hospitals anywhere in the country which provide subsidies for the payment of room & board, drugs and medicines, x-ray, laboratory, operating room fees and doctor’s professional fees. They can also avail of PhilHealth’s Out-patient packages such as payment subsidies for chemotherapy, hemodialysis, radio therapy, cataract extraction and minor surgery. Outpatient Benefit Packages offered by the City Health Office are also provided for free for Sponsored Program members of Roxas City. These include free consultation, urinalysis, complete blood count, fecalysis, urinalysis, sputum microscopy and chest x-ray.
In addition, PhilHealth’s new packages are now also offered to indigent members which can be accessed either in the health center or in other accredited health care facilities. These are free treatment for patients with tuberculosis, Maternity Care Package , New born screening for newly born babies and other additional new benefits which are now aggressively promoted by Roxas City Health Office such as Healthy lifestyle, counseling for cessation for smoking, visual acetic screening for cervical cancer, annual digital rectal exam, periodic clinical breast examination and lifestyle modification counseling.
In addition, Mayor Vicente Bermejo expressed commitment to pursue other initiatives that may lead to Roxas City’s attainment of universal coverage of health insurance. He strongly believed, that progress can only be attained by having a healthy citizenry.
In response, CSIO Joe Frederick T. Diaz also expressed full support to LGUs’ aspiration of attaining universal coverage in their respective area of jurisdiction and is committed to help improve the implementation of the National Health Insurance Program in general in Roxas City and the entire province of Capiz.