PhilHealth awards special citations to partners

I AM so proud to announce that your PhilHealth is marking its 15th year of insuring the nation’s health with two important events this week. One is a press briefing yesterday at the historic Manila Hotel which was attended by some 21 friends and partners from the print and broadcast media. I am so glad that a good friend and fellow columnist here in Sun Star Pampanga Jun Sula was also there (and I expect him to write something about the event in his column).

The other event is a big gathering of PhilHealth’s partners and stakeholders this Friday at the Reception Hall of the Philippine International Convention Center.

There are three big reasons that prompted us to celebrate this big. First, having reached our 15th year is one big reason to rejoice considering that the last two decades and a half have already seemed half a century’s worth of groundbreaking feats.

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Second, February is the National Health Insurance Month once again. Having been one of her priority programs since 2001, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo cemented her lasting support to the cause of social health insurance by signing Proclamation 1400 in 2008, declaring February of every year as NHI Month. Said proclamation aims to mobilize government resources as well as enlist private sector participation to champion the SHI cause.

Third and the biggest reason of all is that we have achieved our mandate of giving a great majority of Filipinos access to quality health care through affordable social health insurance. PhilHealth has just made history as it fulfills its mandate of providing 18 million Filipino families or over 88 percent of the entire Filipino population with health insurance protection under the National Health Insurance Program.

To show our appreciation to our partners and stakeholders, we shall pay tribute to the institutions and the men and women who have helped us achieve this feat. Leading the awardees is no less than President Arroyo who has consistently shown support by making PhilHealth as one of her administration’s flagship programs. She will be bestowed a specially crafted trophy by the famous glass sculptor Ramon Orlina entitled “Mother of the Nation” which fittingly acknowledges the President’s motherly efforts to ensure the health of the nation.

Last week, I ran a long list of universally covered Local Government Units in this column. They are among the honorees in this Friday’s event together with a number of accredited collecting agents (for ensuring members’ access to payment facilities nationwide and in key sites overseas); health care providers (for upholding the ideals of quality health care and for consistently meeting PhilHealth’s standards of excellence); and employers from the government and private sectors (who have shown responsible corporate citizenship and stewardship of their workers’ health and wellness).

We already ran announcements in major dailies and running lists again in this column would be too cumbersome for you. But one thing for sure, the awardees have been rigorously selected based on set criteria on various PhilHealth programs on membership expansion, quality care, member service, among others.

The event will also be highlighted by performances by The RSVP String Ensemble and The CompanY and will be hosted by Bobby Yan and Veronica Baluyot-Jimenez of NBN-4’s One Morning Show.