Pedicab driver gets another lease in life, thanks to ‘Pinoy Health Pass’

When you’re plowing through the inner streets of Metro Manila, chancing upon a road accident is never farfetched. Fifty-five-year-old Nicanor de la Cruz can certainly vouch for this. A pedicab driver in Punta, Sta. Ana, Manila, he was involved in a street brawl which resulted in his getting stabbed in the abdomen.

Luckily, he was given another shot at life, thanks to the collaborative efforts of the government and private sector to give comprehensive health insurance coverage to indigent families.

Called "Pinoy Health Pass," the program is an offshoot of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s (PhilHealth) "Plan 500," a program to enroll 500,000 indigents in the organization’s "Medicare Para sa Masa." It is the first partnership of its kind made possible by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Phils., PhilHealth and participating local government units (LGUs).

Under "Pinoy Health Pass," GSK will sponsor the health insurance premiums of some 10,000 indigent families for two years. On the third year, the program is envisioned to be self-sustaining. This will be divided among four pilot areas – Quezon City (4,000), Manila (2,000), Tacloban City (2,000) and another area still to be determined. Health insurance cards have been awarded to beneficiaries in Manila and Quezon City, including Mang Nicanor.

It was this program that literally saved the De la Cruz family from shelling out thousands of pesos they didn’t have, to buy medicines and pay for hospital and professional fees as a result of Mang Nicanor’s brush with death.

De la Cruz’s wife Lourdes and daughter-in-law Vivien had rushed Mang Nicanor to a small hospital in Mandaluyong City, where they were advised that the case would be given better attention at the Philippine General Hospital.

"We were literally weak with relief when the hospital staff told us we would not have pay for any bills or surgeon’s fees because of our health insurance card. My husband stayed in a ward, got operated on and was well-cared for, all for free. The medicines naturally had to be bought because my husband needed to continue taking them after being discharged from that hospital. But we were able to find ways to buy those," related Aling Lourdes in Tagalog.

Currently, Aling Lourdes is depending on the financial support of her son who works as a welder at a small shop to buy Mang Nicanor’s medicines. Without their health insurance, she said, her husband would most likely have died due to hemorrhage. Luckily also, the bladed weapon missed vital organs, which would have spelled an entirely different ending for Mang Nicanor.

Now up and about after barely two months from the accident, Mang Nicanor said he wishes more government officials, mayors in particular, would replicate the Pinoy Health Pass program in their cities to benefit more poor families like his.

"My family and I are extremely thankful to GlaxoSmithKline, PhilHealth and, of course, Mayor Lito Atienza for providing us with better access to healthcare. Pinoy Health Pass made us feel better about ourselves and gave us a sense of oneness with a community that looks after our well-being," said Mang Nicanor.