Hundreds of thousands enroll in Konsulta

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LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Hundreds of thousands of Pangasinan residents are now enrolled in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation's (PhilHealth) Konsulta program, thanks to the provincial government's intensified campaign in the last three months.

"Anyone should have no reason why he or she cannot have a medical checkup. This is for the preventive health care program of the province," said Gov. Ramon Guico III in an interview over the weekend.

Konsulta or Konsultasyong Sulit Tama is a comprehensive outpatient medical benefit package mandated by the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law.

Konsulta aims to protect the health of every Filipino against chronic illnesses, avoid complications through early detection, and provide affordable drugs and medicines, according to the PhilHealth website.

Under the program, all Filipinos shall be registered with an accredited provider of their choice and be eligible to avail of consultation, health risk screening and assessment, selected laboratory and diagnostic test, and selected drugs and medicines.

To encourage more people to avail of Konsulta, the provincial government launched the Government Unified Incentives for Medical Consultations (Guiconsulta) program, which grants cash incentives to Pangasinan residents who will enroll in the Konsulta program.

"Now, this is another program kasi marami ang walang-wala talaga (because many people really have nothing). In going to the RHU (Rural Health Unit), to the hospital, they have nothing to spend for their transportation, and food. So. we somehow gave them incentives for them to have a medical checkup," Guico said.

Before the launching of the campaign, the Provincial Hospital Management Services Office reported that only around 28,000 Pangasinense were enrolled in the Konsulta program.

"So, how do you achieve UHC's aim to have all Filipinos covered by PhilHealth? We cannot just achieve that. That's why we have this program to help them enroll in PhilHealth and get a free check up," Guico said.

He said the province's Guiconsulta program targets about 2 million of the province's 3.1 million population.

The Provincial Health Office here has not been able to provide the exact number of those enrolled in the program, saying they were still consolidating their data.

But at the pace the provincial government had been launching the program in the different towns and cities of the province since October, at least 200,000 thousand residents may have been registered.

"If it's early detection, you only spend a couple of hundreds of pesos for your medicines. But if you are admitted (to a hospital), it will cost you thousands of pesos," Guico said.

"So it's always better to prevent than to cure," he added.

At present, the provincial government runs one provincial hospital in San Carlos City, six district hospitals in the towns of Tayug, Bayambang, Mangatarem, and Lingayen, and in the cities of Alaminos and Urdaneta.

It also has seven community hospitals in the towns of Mapandan, Asingan, Pozorrubio, Bolinao, Umingan, Dasol, and Manaoag.

All of the provincial government-run hospitals are accredited PhilHealth Konsulta providers.