Private health providers still dominate market

MANILA, Philippines - Social health insurance grew the fastest though private health provider still controlled the biggest share of health insurance in the Philippines in 2012.

But Filipinos continued to carry the burden of health spending in the same period.

The country’s main sources of funds for health are private, government, social and various sources.

Based on the latest data released by the Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA), social insurance grew the fastest at 32.3 percent, or from P39.2 billion in 2011 to P51.8 billion in 2012.

Largest form of formal social health insurance is the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

The various forms of health insurance otherwise known as “the rest of the world” grew by 14.6 percent, private health insurance by 12.4 percent, and government by just 2.7 percent.

The dominant form of private-sourced health insurance is the loosely-regulated health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and well-regulated life insurance companies.

In terms of percentage share to the total health expenditures, private sources accounted for the largest share at 69.6 percent, followed by government with 18.5 percent, social insurance with 11.1 percent, and the rest of the world with a 0.9 percent share.

Unfortunately, Filipino households continued to bear the heaviest burden in terms of spending for their health needs as “private out-of-pocket” reached 57.6 percent of the total health expenditure in 2012. This is equivalent to an estimated share worth P269.4 billion.

The PSA report said that the country’s total health expenditure expanded by 12.3 percent, from P416.4 billion in 2011 to P467.8 billion in 2012. 

“This could be mainly attributed to the higher growth rates of all sources of funds,” it said.

Discounting the effect of inflation, total health expenditure grew by 8.9 percent from P330.3 billion in 2011 to P359.6 billion in 2012.

With the total health expenditure growing faster (12.3 percent) than the population (1.8 percent), the nominal per capita health spending went up by 10.4 percent or by P455.00, or from P4,392 in 2011 to P4,847 in 2012.

At constant 2006 prices, per capita expenditure increased by just seven percent or from P3,483 in 2011 to P3,726 in 2012.

In terms of levels, government health spending grew by a mere 2.7 percent to P86.4 billion in 2012 from the 2011 level of P84.1 billion.

In 2012, the National Government spending as a percentage of the total health expenditure was estimated at 11.4 percent. This was higher than the 10-percent target set forth in the Health Care Financing Strategy (HCFS) 2010-2020.  

On the other hand, local government spending estimated at 7.1 percent was below the HCFS target of 11 percent.

The country’s total health expenditure as a percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) increased from 4.3 percent in 2011 to just 4.4 percent in 2012. It was likewise off-target since the original target was 4.5 percent set by the Department of Health (DOH).

Only two of the eight health care financing indicators exceeded the targets, namely: 1) National Government spending as percentage of the total health expenditure reached 11.4 percent – higher than the 10-percent target; and 2) National Government spending for public health amounted to P20.8 billion, more than twice the target of P10 billion.