NEGROS Occidental Third District Representative Jose Francisco Benitez led the filing of House Resolution (HR) 1031, which calls on the joint congressional oversight panel to conduct an "immediate review and assessment" of Republic Act 11223, also known as the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law.
Benitez, along with 10 other lawmakers, said they sought the review of the UHC Law to determine if there is a need to amend its restrictive provisions, particularly Section 34, "so as not to cripple our public health systems especially now that we are not exempted from the unimaginable risk that Covid-19 poses."
Other congressmen who joined Benitez in filing HR 1031 were Iloilo First District Representative Janette Loreto-Garin, Bacolod Lone District Representative Greg Gasataya, Cebu City First District Representative Raul Del Mar, Abang Lingkod partylist Representative Joseph Stephen Paduano, Northern Samar Representative Paul Daza, Negros Occidental Second District Representative Leo Rafael Cueva, Negros Occidental Firth District Representative Ma. Lourdes Arroyo, Cebu Seventh District Representative Peter John Calderon, Cebu Fourth District Representative Janice Salimbangon, and Negros Oriental Second District Representative Manuel Sagarbarria.
They urged the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Universal Health Care to immediately take a second look at the UHC Law, particularly its "restrictive" provisions that limit the country's access to any breakthrough on medicines and drugs amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Benitez's group specifically questioned the law's post-marketing surveillance requirement (Phase IV) or the practice of monitoring the safety of a pharmaceutical drug or medical device after it has been released on the market.