Marcos zero-balance billing shields families from crushing hospital bills

[Lee]

MANILA (PIA) — When Donnalyn Perez and her husband PJ Arranza arrived at the Department of Health’s Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital with a premature baby in urgent need of an incubator and a lung-maturing medication called surfactant, they had already been turned away elsewhere. 

More than a month later, they have yet to pay a single peso.

Their son’s stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, which has accumulated costs approaching half a million pesos, has been fully covered under President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s Zero Balance Billing program, which guarantees that patients in DOH hospitals are discharged without out-of-pocket charges.

“One month and more, we don’t have to worry about anything we have to pay, even when we leave, no matter how long we stay,” Donnalyn said in Filipino.

The couple’s experience reflects the program’s intent: to remove financial anxiety from families already under the strain of a medical crisis, particularly those with newborns requiring intensive care.

PJ, who has been performing Kangaroo Mother Care, holding his premature son skin-to-skin against his chest as a human incubator to supplement warmth and stimulate weight gain, said the assurance of zero billing has allowed him to focus entirely on his child’s recovery.

“It’s a blessing for us as a couple. We no longer have any financial worries here. My focus now is just on the expenses after we leave, his milk, his needs. I won’t abandon him. We are thankful that we have zero balance,” PJ said.

The family had originally sought care at another facility, but was referred to Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital after their first hospital reported no available incubator and was unable to provide the surfactant their son needed for lung development at seven months gestation.

The Zero Balance Billing program, implemented across DOH hospitals nationwide, ensures that PhilHealth coverage and government subsidies absorb all remaining hospital costs after a patient is discharged, with no balance passed on to the patient or family regardless of the length of stay or complexity of care.

The program is a key component of the Marcos Jr. administration’s universal health care agenda under Republic Act 11223, which commits the government to ensuring that no Filipino is denied medical treatment or burdened by unmanageable health expenses. (JCO/PIA-NCR)

 

https://pia.gov.ph/news/marcos-zero-balance-billing-shields-families-from-crushing-hospital-bills/

[JJReyes]

39 minutes ago, Lee said:

Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital

There are documentaries and YouTube videos about this government hospital where thousands give birth every month.  You have two mothers and two babies' sharing one bed and the beds are touching each other because the wards are overcrowded.  The mothers have to sleep in a fetus position or in shifts.  It's accurately called, "The Baby Factory."

[Possum]

It is not just that government hospital. My wife said it is common in the two government hospitals she worked in. As she said, if you are very ill at least it is cheaper to die in a government hospital than a private one. Yes, she is cynical about the medical system here.