TO make sure that the P213-million budget for the City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program and Long Life Medical Assistance Program (LLAMP) for 2018 becomes sustainable, the Cebu City Council committee on budget and finance suggested maintaining a 30,000-beneficiary target.
Peter Visitacion, LLAMP head, said the program currently caters to around 55,000 beneficiaries, adding that they plan to expand so more people can receive daily maintenance medicine from the City Government.
But Councilor Margarita Osmeña, head of the committee, said that this might not be sustainable.
Of the more than P200 million budget, some P24 million has been allocated for Long Life.
Suggestion
Osmeña said the program’s rate of expansion is “so fast”, but the budget can’t keep up.
“I’m just worried about the beneficiaries that they will be so disappointed and that’s not the objective of this program,” she said.
Visitacion admitted that there were days when they were short in supply. He said that more residents are asking for maintenance medicine even though they are not on the list of beneficiaries.
“We were at the state of no stopping. The situation before was that houses one and four benefited. Upon hearing this, houses two and three also declared that they have family members who need the medicine,” he said.
Osmeña suggested making non-beneficiaries understand that the program can only cater to qualified beneficiaries.