DMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 2010 00?6 SUBJECT: The Aquino Health Asgnda:AchievineUniversalHealth Care for All Filipinos I.

BACKGROUNDAND RATIONALE Health-related public policies andlaws have providedthe impetus for comprehensive reform strategies identified in the Health Sector ReformAgenda (HSRA) launched in 1999 and its implementation framework, the FOURmula One (F1) for Health in 2005. Since then, substantialgains

in health sectorimprovements havebeen achieved in the areas of social health insurance coverage and benefits,execution of Department of Health(DOH) budgets and its use to leverage local govemment unit(LGU) performance, LGU spending in health,systematic health investment planningthrough the Province-wide InvestmentPlan for Health (PIPHy Citywide Investment Plan for Health (CIPHy Annual Operational Plan (AOP) process, capacities

of governmenthealth facilities, and the implementation and monitoring of public healthprograms. However,poor Filipino families have yet to experience equity and access to critical health services, despite all of theseachievements. DOH and PhilHealth recently conducted a joint Benefit Delivery Review highlighting the need to increase enrollment coverage, improveavailment of benefits andincrease

support value for claims in order for the National Health InsuranceProgram (NHIP) to provide Filipinos substantial f,rnancial risk protection. More importantly,benefit delivery for thesponsored program(poorest quintile) was found to be lowest amongourpeople. To date, only 53 percent of the entire populationis covered by the program, wrth 42percent availment rate, and 34 percentsupportvalueor a totalbenefitdeliveryratio of

8 percent. Public hospitals and health facilities havealsosufferedneglect due to the inadequacy of health budgets in terms of support for upgrading to expand capacity and improvequality of services. As of October 2010, eight hundred ninety two (892)rural health units(RHUs) and ninetynine (99) govemmenthospitalshave yet to qualify for accreditation by PhilHealth.Data

have also shown that the poorest of thepopulation are the main users of govemment health facilities.This means that the deterioration and poorquality of many governmenthealth facilities is particularly disadvantageous to thepoor who needs the services themost. Moreover, weaknesses in management and compensation of human resources for health have not been adequately

addressed and inadequacies in health information systems toguide planning and implementationof healthprograms also need urgent attention. Lastly, while the Philippines is on target for most of its Millennium Development Goals (MDG), it is laggingbehind in reducingmaternal and infantmortality. These twoindicators are still at 162 per i00,000 live births and 25 per 1,000 live births

respectively (2005FPS and 2008 NDHS), with 2015 MDG targets at 52 and19, respectively.There is Building l, San LazaroCompound,Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz, 1003 ManilaTrunk Line+63 (2) 743-8301 Direct Line:+63 (2) 7 | I -950 I Fax:+63(2)743-1829 URL: http:i/www.doh.gor,.ph I e-mail:osecGllqh.ept,.pb I FB: facebook.com/DOHgovph I Twitter: @DOHgovph