Abstract:
The Universal Health Care (UHC) has been one of the most controversial issues in health, socio-political and socio-economic realm. Recently, the Philippines have been slowly moving towards a nationalized healthcare by enacting the Universal Health Coverage Act of 2018 which seeks to expand the institutional powers of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth). This study analyzed the capability and efficiency of the bill as a nationalized healthcare that seeks to prioritize the welfare of Filipinos by providing accessible and available healthcare service. It also examined the role that Local Government Units (LGUs) played in a policy that claims to be a rights-based centralized healthcare system. There are numerous studies about the decentralization of the health sector in the country but with the transition to UHC it is vital that evaluation of devolution must occur so that the administration must be properly guided. The insurance-based healthcare have improved the health conditions in the country for the past decades however data showed that it continually failed to solve the pervasive health problems such as unemployment and underemployment of health workers, the lack of proper funding, inadequate supplies, facilities and equipment, and the prevalent poverty.
