Filipino households spent P296.5 billion for out-of-pocket health expenses in 2013, according to the Philippine National Health Accounts (PNHA) recently released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The PSA data showed that this represented 56.3 percent of the total health expenditure, worth P526.3 billion, in 2013.
“This figure represents an improvement from 57.2 percent in 2012, but remained relatively high compared with the 45 percent HCFS [Health Care Financing Strategy] target of [the] DOH [Department of Health],” the PSA said.
Data also showed that per capita health expenditure at current prices was registered at P5,360 in 2013, a 9.8-percent increase from P4,881 in 2012.
The PSA said that at constant 2006 prices, per capita health spending rose by 6.6 percent to P4,000 in 2013, from P3,752 in 2012.
Due to this, the government missed its target of reducing out-of-pocket health expenditures to 45 percent in 2013.
The government also missed its target of increasing government spending on health as a percentage of total government spending.
The DOH target in 2013 was 6 percent, but the government’s spending for health remained at 4.9 percent in 2013, the same level in 2012.
Further, the target of increasing local government spending for public health as a percentage of total health expenditure was also missed.
The 2013 target was set at 11 percent. However, local government spending for public health as a percentage of total health expenditure decreased to 7 percent in 2013, from 7.3 percent in 2012.
In terms of actual local spending for public health, local governments spent only P16.6 billion in 2013, which is P12.4 billion short of the P29-billion target.
Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) spending as a total percentage of total health expenditure was also lower than the target of 19 percent. The actual PhilHealth spending as a total percentage of total health expenditure in 2013 was only 11.5 percent.
The PNHA presents information on how much is spent on health-care goods and services and who is paying them.
The information provide insights on the efficiency and effectiveness of health-care financing system; help determine appropriate interventions to delivery of health care; and provide inputs to evaluation of health programs.
The data can also help determine whether the aggregate health-care spending from all sources—that is, the government, the social insurance sector, the private sector and the rest of the world—is adequate to meet minimum requirements and identify probable areas of inefficiencies in allocating health-care resources.