Dr. Domingo envisions the program for Equity in Health to be the major venue for all previous secretaries of health, describing it “as an opportunity for leaders who have gone through the process to give us the wisdom to improve our system.”
March 7, 2023 — Dr. Ernesto Domingo, National Scientist and Universal Health Care (UHC) Study Group member, stated during a March 1 forum that the health inequities still being experienced at relative levels even with the UHC implementation is a very good reason for establishing a program in health equity.
The 2014 Ramon Magsaysay awardee explained that in health equity, there must be someone documenting whether equity measures are being achieved, and this will provide feedback to those implementing universal health care if they are achieving their goals.
He also emphasized the essence of a leadership program, especially in the UHC implementation.
“Equity in health, UHC, and programs in leadership and governance are inseparable activities because they improve one another,” Domingo stressed.
During the forum, the Program for Health Equity and the Dr. Stephen Zuellig Program for Health Leadership and Governance were launched through a grant from the Zuellig Family Foundation.
Advocating UHC way before
The former UP Manila chancellor and now University Professor recounted that in 2008, he and the late Dr. Alberto ‘Quasi’ Romualdez, then dean of the UP College of Medicine and later secretary of health, assembled a group of people from various disciplines from UP within and outside the university to evaluate how the university responded to the nation’s health inequity. It was then that they started their advocacy for UHC becoming part of the UHC Study Group.
Dr. Domingo said that they made their own definition of what they envisioned UHC to be: the provision to every Filipino of the highest possible quality of health care that is accessible, efficient, equitably distributed, adequately funded, fairly-financed, and appropriately used by an informed and empowered public.
But recognizing it would not be understood by the ordinary Juan, the definition was modified to “All Filipinos can use needed health care based on health needs and not on ability to pay.”
“There is no substantial out-of-pocket payment when a person uses health care, but not considered charity because it is prepaid either through taxes or the PhilHealth premium. If a person gets sick, there is a designated place near you where you can find health professionals to attend to your needs. If your illness is beyond their capacity to solve, they will help you navigate the system,” Domingo pointed out.
During the next 12 years after its creation, the UHC Study Group was engaged in advocating for UHC. In 2019, the Universal Health Care Law was passed with the UHC implementing rules and regulations formulated and approved thereafter.
Dr. Domingo envisions the program for Equity in Health to be the major venue for all previous secretaries of health, describing it “as an opportunity for leaders who have gone through the process to give us the wisdom to improve our system.”
He ended his Dr. Stephen Zuellig Memorial Lecture by paying tribute to and reading a quote from Dr. Romualdez: “All of us began with the promise of Universal Health Care. If it’s still not there, I think we should start getting impatient. Specially, we should start convincing our people that they should not be too patient. They should start demanding their rights, because the people who are running things are not part of the communities that are deprived. They have access, so it is not urgent for them. It is urgent for people who have no voices.”
Charmaine Lingdas
