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QUEZON CITY, October 18, 2025 (SDN) — Ask a Filipino, particularly those in the “masa” bracket, what they think of going to a doctor for consultation. Most often than not, the answer is “walang pera” — no money — or “pag may pera na” — when there’s money already.
The response epitomizes a mindset that afflicts many less-privileged Filipinos, the “sakit ng bulsa” (disease of the pocket) affliction: no money for medical needs. But you can’t blame them, on the other hand, because they have more pressing needs according to their own set of priorities than going to a doctor for consultation. So, the trip to a doctor be damned!
Until it’s too late, sickness sans symptoms, long been in the gestation period, and has now grown critical, even threatening to become a life-or-death situation.
Medical professionals have acknowledged this ill-advised practice among Filipinos. For example, this was mentioned at the PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corporation) press conference on Wednesday, October 15, at its National Capital Region (NCR) Office, Corporate 145 Building, No. 145 Mother Ignacia Avenue, South Triangle, Quezon City, Metro Manila.
One of the Philippines’ Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations (GOCCs), the agency wants to convince Filipinos to let go of this defeatist mindset laden with risks through what might be a revolutionary initiative that benefits all and every living Filipino.
The PhilHealth president/CEO revealed further that of the 36 million registered, 50 million of them alread chose their clinic, 8.87 million completed their first patient encounter (FPE), 104 pharmacists accredited (56 of them in Metro Manila),
This is the PhilHealth YAKAP Program which was discussed on Wednesday, October 15, at the PhilHealth YAKAP Program: A Roundtable Discussion for Primary Care Advocacy, that with Universal Healthcare in practice, “walang pera” should not be an obstacle to early detection of illness that leads to better health. “YAKAP” stands for “Yaman ng Kalusugan” (Health’s Wealth).
SDN — SciTech & Digital News encountered this mental attitude from a cab driver morning of October 17 while on a ride to Malacañang for a health-related visit.
SDN asked about the cab driver his age and health, if he has any maintenance medicines and for what illness. “John”, his first name, said he is presently taking Losartan (a medicine for hypertension which is sometimes paired with Amlodipine).
“How long you’ve been taking the drug, was it prescribed by a doctor?”, SDN asks him.
“Just recently,” John replies, his facial expression nonchalant, but with a palpable sense of sadness. “It was not prescribed by doctor. I just take it when I feel the back of my neck is aching.” He is 54 years old.
The conversation continued because SDN was concerned if has a hypertension, then he needs to take it every day, or as his doctor prescribes. But he has not gone to any clinic or doctor where he lives in a barangay in Quezon City, saying there’s no government village clinic.
PhilHealth YAKAP is for long term — Dr. Mercado
SDN pressed the issue. “You have to go to a doctor, to Quezon City Hall, for consultation.” He responded with resignation, his face and voice serious but full of disappointment with government. He said something about government not truly caring for people like him in society’s edge.
“Pag may pera na,” he says, adding he can’t skip even a day from plying his taxi — he drives even during the cab’s coding day — because he needed every centavo from his earnings to pay off debts. He said he has been living in Barangay Lourdes for 20 years, so he knows his barangay has no facility for it. At Quezon City Hall where there is, he repeated that he can’t skip even a day from driving his cab.
When he was told about the YAKAP Program, he said he heard about it and he plans to register even though he is not a member of PhilHealth. John became animated when the topic shifted to the anomalous flood control projects, you can almost hear him grating his teeth.
There are many Johns among Filipinos. They are the ones that stand to benefit more from the PhilHealth primary care initiative — a shift from reactive to proactive mode. If only they can be convinced to believe in government through the YAKAP Program.
The good news is that PhilHealth appears it seriously wants to change this prevailing mental attitude of “no money” for consultation among the citizens through the YAKAP Program that covers every Filipino, members, or non-members as long as they are registered as dependents of their parents.
And PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Edwin M. Mercado told SDN the primary care program is “for long term,” emphasizing that “PhilHealth has a sovereign guarantee.”
Changing how Filipinos think of primary care is what Dr. Mercado emphasized at the event, saying YAKAP is exactly that, “to change our mindset and behavior through the initiative that expanded and upgraded the benefit packages of its own Konsulta (Konsultasyong Sulit at Tama).
PhilHealth seeks media’s help in popularizing YAKAP
PhilHealth YAKAP is driven by a Php15.3-billion funding upon its launch in July with 36 million already registered and availing themselves of the services: free consultation/checkup, laboratory, and medicines with Php20,000 budget for each registered member, as well as cancer screening.
PhilHealth officials led by Dr. Mercado, along with Corporate Affairs Group Vice President Walter R. Bacareza, Regional Vice President for NCR and Rizal province Dr. Bernadette C. Lico, Corporate Communications and Social Health Insurance Academy (SHIA) Acting Manager Christine Mae G. Magno, and others, as well as the participation of YAKAP Program partners, hammered down on the importance of embracing and taking primary care to heart.
A quick search on the internet shows that “primary care” refers to first point of contact for individuals with the healthcare system, providing day-to-day medical needs from a general practitioner or other health professionals like nurses and pharmacists.”
Coverage of primary care includes a whole gamut of “preventive care, diagnosing and treating illnesses, managing chronic conditions, and coordinating with specialists when necessary.”
“Unahan natin ang sakit,” declares Magno at the roundtable event. The phrase can be interpreted as getting ahead of or preventing illness before it can set in. Apparently, this is the whole meat of primary care, detecting any signs of disease before it can embed itself in one’s body.
But as the story about cab driver John goes, PhilHealth has a lot of work to do to get the message to 117 million Filipinos (2025 population via Odometer), or at least the 17.4 million who self-rated themselves as “poor” in the 2024 figure from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Perhaps, this is the reason the officials of the GOCC that is driving the Universal Healthcare Law repeatedly appealed to the news media to help them spread the message about the YAKAP Program.
Magno pointed out that PhilHealth wants to better educate Filipinos. “Our intention is (for them) to better understand the (YAKAP) Program,” she adds, even as she cited the media’s role. “But we need you to help us ensure the people understand the message.”
Bacareza, who previously served in Mindanao, said the PhilHealth is “embarking on a news mission” with YAKAP, an expanded version of Konsulta.
When registering for PhilHealth YAKAP, make sure about your PIN
“This is a very exciting time for PhilHealth for me, and I am very proud I witness an orderly PhilHealth,” saying the GOCC was stabilized in the time of the present administration, citing the turnaround in payment that is reduced to 23 days from before that took some 60 days, and that benefit packages were increased.
In the past years, he said the problem was that PhilHealth was always slow to pay (doctors, health facilities). “We listened to you about dialysis.”
“We have to make primary care orderly,” he adds, by acting promptly on illness when it is still starting. “All Filipinos should be checked up, go through laboratory, given medicines, consultations and medicines are in YAKAP,” Bacareza assures.
“It should not be that we only see each other when you get sick. You see, our president (Mercado), moves fast, there’s no favoritism, and trusted,” he says.
Dr. Mercado, on the other hand, cautioned that developing health systems like the YAKAP Program “takes time.”
He adds, “We are trying to see what’s the impact, and what we lack in the past. One of the biggest (improvement) is the Php20,000 for every Filipino for medicines. In primary care, Php20,000 is already big for maintenance medicines.”
The PhilHealth president/CEO cautioned the GOCC’s employees to not make haste, saying that “perfection is the enemy of success” but progress is needed.
PhilHealth has already been implemented in Albay, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, and Masbate in the Bicol Region, and it was already soft-launched in Manila recently.
The PhilHealth officials sent out the message that because of the sheer number of Filipinos, the YAKAP Program cannot be implemented simultaneously nationwide.
And the goal of the primary care initiative is “para malayo sa sakit ang bawat Filipino” (for every Filipino to be far from illness) and make it the slogan. “We are trying to transform healthcare, to be far from sickness through YAKAP, starting off with changing the (mindset). If the illness has already set in and already worse, it also hurts the pocket. That is what we are trying change it. Make primary care the first step to healthcare.”
Currently, they said the YAKAP Program is still in Phase 1 and Phase 2.
A PhilHealth briefer says YAKAP Program is for every Filipino, they just need to choose a clinic and register.
How to avail yourself of PhilHealth?
Register while making sure one has a PhilHealth Identification Number or PIN; choose a YAKAP clinic using eGov PH App, PhilHealth Member Portal, or to the nearest PhilHealth Office; undergo a First Patient Encounter (FPE) covering medical history, health screening, and health education; fill up a form given to you where you agree that you will be continuously taken care of by the YAKAP Clinic; continue your consultation so you can be given a prescription for your medicines needs, given a referral for laboratory and/or cancer screening test if needed, and for assessment to determine the follow up check-up.
PhilHealth YAKAP is to be away from illness, a program for primary care to maintain a good health, early detection of ailment, taking maintenance drugs, and until you are healed from sickness.
Under the Universal Health Care, all Filipinos can receive benefits from PhilHealth and its YAKAP Program, including dependents of PhilHealth members, they just need to choose a clinic. — EDD K. Usman (©)
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The author
EDD, a native of Sub-Saharan Africa Buluan/Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, BARMM, college at UST, is a Manila-based journalist for over 40 years (33 years with Manila Bulletin), has five Media Awards (1 with University of the Philippines (UP) 2017 Science Journalism Award), covered and traveled over 40 times abroad), has contributed to Rappler, Business Mirror, Manila Business Insights, Panorama Magazine, Agriculture Magazine, and others, former Manila-based Foreign Correspondent of Saudi Arabia newspapers Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily, and The Peninsula (Qatar newspaper), with 2008 East-West Center (EWC) Journalism Seminar in the United States, 2000 Executive IT Seminar in Seoul, South Korea, with three Silver Awards in Photography, writes Muslim and Current Affairs, Enterprise, Science, Tech, Products Launch, and virtually everything under Heaven. (©)