Health UPdates Webinar #266 “Healthcare in the Philippines: Fragmented nga ba?”

The University of the Philippines,
in partnership with the UP Manila – National Institutes of Health,
and in cooperation with UP Philippine General Hospital and UP College of Medicine,
would like to invite you to attend this webinar!

Registration slots are limited to this HEALTH UPDATES webinar
So sign up NOW:
bit.ly/HealthUpdatesWebinar266

Webinar #266
December 5, 2025 (Friday), 12:00 noon
Healthcare in the Philippines: Fragmented Nga Ba?

Presenter:
DR. KENNETH Y. HARTIGAN-GO
Senior Research Fellow, Ateneo Policy Center
Program Director, Ateneo School of Government

Reactor:
DR. MINGUITA B. PADILLA
Past President, Eye Bank of the Philippines

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Webinar #266
December 5, 2025 (Friday), 12:00 noon
Healthcare in the Philippines: Fragmented Nga Ba?

In an era defined by the pursuit of Universal Health Care (UHC), the persistence of a fragmented healthcare system in the Philippines presents a critical challenge to achieving equitable and efficient health outcomes for all citizens. In this week’s episode, we will dissect the various elements contributing to this persistent fragmentation by moving beyond anecdotal observations to a rigorous, evidence-based analysis.

The core of the issue lies in the complex interplay of a devolved governance structure and a multi-payer financing landscape. The decentralization of health functions to Local Government Units (LGUs), while democratically sound, has inadvertently led to vast disparities in service delivery capacity, resource allocation, and technical expertise across provinces and municipalities. This results in scenarios where a patient’s access to timely, high-quality care — ranging from chronic disease management to emergency maternal services — is often contingent not on clinical need, but on geographical location and the fiscal capacity of their LGU. In addition, the co-existence of national health insurance (PhilHealth), Department of Health (DOH) programs, and LGU-sourced budgets creates siloed funding streams that often overlap or, conversely, neglect vital public health functions, exacerbating out-of-pocket expenditures for the most vulnerable.

To illustrate this complexity, our speakers will discuss the fractured referral pathways between a rural health unit and a tertiary hospital, or the lack of interoperability between disparate health information systems. Such instances reveal the systemic inefficiencies that not only strain the resources of providers but also diminish the patient experience and compromise continuity of care. The fragmented Human Resources for Health (HRH) distribution, marked by the severe maldistribution of specialists and the perennial “brain drain” of nurses, further compounds this problem, leaving many underserved communities with insufficient personnel to implement UHC’s primary care-focused mandate.

Crucially, this session is not simply a problem-focused deliberation. We will also discuss actionable recommendations and ways forward. We will outline key strategies for governance alignment by emphasizing the integration of provincial-wide or city-wide health systems to ensure a unified health network. We will also explore the transformative potential of strategic purchasing within PhilHealth and the necessity of robust, interoperable digital health solutions to bridge informational and geographical gaps.

Our main speaker is a Senior Research Fellow from the Ateneo Policy Center, Dr. Kenneth Y. Hartigan-Go. Our reactor is Dr. Minguita B. Padilla, who is a past president of the Eye Bank of the Philippines.

Join us to critically engage with these challenges and to contribute to the collective effort of transforming a fragmented system into a cohesive, resilient, and truly universal health architecture.