The political economy of public hospital financing in the Philippines: case analyses of Philippine General Hospital and Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center.

Abstract

Instead of being provided with the right budget, public hospitals are given inadequate amount of financial resources. In line with the government’s thrust towards fiscal autonomy and self-sufficiency rooted from the unjust dictates of foreign influences, public hospitals are then being forced to earn their own funds -a large number of funds. In response, they have to resort to various income-generating schemes. Public hospital financing is becoming a way to coerce the public hospitals of any way possible to be able to make money and make the hospital viable; and by and large, the money is taken, and almost being stolen from the patients and the health workers. Public hospitals then become an income-generating sector, instead of being a health service provider -setting off the correct path in the primary objective of being public hospitals, to serve the people. The government’s neglect and abandonment of its responsibility on public hospital financing translates to heavier burden being shouldered by the Filipino health workers and patients who take refuge in these supposedly government-provided health care services. Having the cases of Philippine General Hospital and Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center, this study aimed to evaluate how public hospitals are being financed, make an analysis on the sufficiency of the government’s budget allocation to these public hospitals, and underscore the impacts of the current state of public hospital financing on the hospitals, health workers, and patients.