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I see UHC as the greatest upheaval for the Philippine Health Care in this recent time. For me, its goals are quite ambitious, but overall, the intention to better the healthcare system for all Filipinos is there. I was also surprised initially that the UHC was very encompassing and that it did not have contrasting provisions against the Local Government Code, hence I can say that the integration levels of RA 11223 are complementary to the structures stipulated in the Local Government Code.

 

One of the key provisions in the landmark Universal Health Care (UHC) law is the integration of local health systems. This is a drastic and major move given that we have the devolution in place as provided for by the Local Government Code. But as I see it, these integration levels provided for by the UHC will not hinder local government control of municipal health facilities and resources. Instead, it will help it.

 

Now, Section 19 of the UHC law would require the integration of provincial, city-wide, and municipal hospitals, as well as rural health units (RHUs), into provincial and city-wide health systems.  Integration means public and private primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare providers in provinces or cities would have more coordination in order to refer patients to appropriate facilities with the services they need. Meaning to say, they would no longer be left for their own.

 

This Integration by the UHC would also require the overall supervision of provincial and city health boards over health facilities and human resources. However, the same law assures us that even with this integration, the country's overall healthcare system would remain devolved. To make things clearer, the setup will remain devolved, but the provincial (and city) health board will have administrative and technical supervision of (municipal and city-wide) health facilities and human resources - supervision,

not control.

 

I do understand that one of the challenges with the UHC in crafting the IRR was reconciling the law with the intent of the Local Government Code of 1991. The Local Government Code gave us the devolution of

our health care system. Healthcare in the Philippines is devolved, meaning the management and delivery of health services are in the hands of locally elected provincial, city, and municipal governments. But this devolved setup has a lot of disadvantages, one is for being vulnerable to the whims of local politics, which may affect the delivery of healthcare services, especially during elections.

 

But the point here is that these integration Levels promoted by the UHC does not intend to replace and remove the devolution, but instead complement, support, and oversee it. This way, we can ensure that we can better patient outcomes for all Filipinos.

 

If we can all study the UHC law first, its provisions, then we should be able to see the bigger picture. The intent of the UHC law is for the coordinated and comprehensive delivery of healthcare services to patients. It aims to improve and complement the provisions of the Local Government Code. If we remain in this siloed system and the referral system inefficient, many casualties will arise, and many Filipinos will continue to die. Now, with the UHC Law's Integration Levels, we can minimize this harm, and slowly correct our fragmented health system.