Health care in the Philippines

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Health care in the Philippines varies with private, public and barangay health centers (many in rural municipalities). Most of the national burden of health care is provided by private health providers, with the cost shouldered by the state or by patients.

The World Health Organization defines health care as an overall maintenance and solution to the health needs of a person, family, or community. It is a system that addresses these health needs are fulfilled through prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care.^[1] WHO states that the system needs financial stability, well-trained human resources (along with proper salary), proper information/data, and proper maintenance of up to date facilities to be able to deliver quality services, medicine, and researches.^[2]

Health care in the Philippines has been defined by the WHO as "fragmented", meaning there's a large gap between the quality and quantity of health services for the poor and the rich. With different reasons such as low budget, low number of personnel, or general neglect for the poor, the Philippines has always been unable to keep up with the high standards of healthcare abroad. This low number of personnel can be attributed to the increase in migration and resignation of Philippine nurses.^[3] Comparing data from 2014 between Philippines, United States of America, and Canada, Philippines only spent 4.7% of their GDP on health while USA and Canada spent 17.1% and 10.4%.^[4][5][6] Efforts are being performed to bridge the gap. On February 20, 2019, the Universal Health Care (UHC) Bill was signed into law, aiming to provide proper healthcare services for all.