The Employed Program of the Philippine Health Insurance (PhilHealth) caters to those in the formal sector. Included are those in the government and private sectors with a formal employer-employee relationship. Coverage levels for both the government and private sectors are promising with...

The Individually Paying Program (IPP) is the voluntary component of the Philippines' social health insurance program. The program caters to those in the informal sector and those without a formal employer-employee relationship. Coverage levels for the IPP were found to be considerably low with a...

Catastrophic illnesses can push a household into poverty by causing unmanageable, or catastrophic, expenditures for their treatment or management. Kalusugan Pangkalahatan aims to provide financial risk protection for the poor. Hence, insurance coverage for catastrophic illnesses need to be...

The study assesses the experience of three Asian countries: China, Thailand, and Vietnam in the pursuit of universal health coverage (UHC) of their social health insurance schemes. It seeks to analyze a set of domains including membership fees, services, benefits, equity, among others, relative...

Health care providers such as hospitals and primary health care facilities form an integral part of any health system. Providers must have both financial sustainability, such that they are able to continuously deliver health care services without bankruptcy, and sufficient profits to maintain...

Indigent membership in PhilHealth has surged in recent years, driven by the nation-wide identification of the poor. However, the massive identification has led to the enrollment of more members than official poverty estimates, resulting in leakages in the government's social health insurance...

The Philippines has been experiencing unprecedented economic growth in recent years. This has fueled greater consumption among households, and greater support for the expansion of government entitlements, particularly on health and education. Behind these developments, however, is the fact that...

The Sin Tax Reform Act (STRA) of 2012 (RA 10351) and its amendments paved the way to revisit excise taxation for sin products, such as tobacco, alcohol, heated tobacco products and vapor products, and sweetened beverages. The ad valorem tax system reform has a two-fold aim: (1) increase revenues...