Catigbian town puts in another innovation worth replicating by local government units: a socialized health service incorporated in a local system called the yellow card.
By passing Municipal Ordinance Number 6, series of 2009, the town has also successfully institutionalized a program that has become prime tool for some local chief executives who want a sole credit making it appear that he is using his own money to aid his constituents.
We need to put up a measure that would stop future leaders from appointing his political supporters as beneficiaries, all to the disadvantage of those seriously needing the help, Mayor Roberto Salinas stressed.
The Yellow Card Ordinance is our humble way of providing the best health care and at the same time sustain the operations of the new Municipal Health Center and Lying in Clinic, Salinas said.
But considering that we have indigent constituents who would also need to avail of its offered basic medical and health services, we need to identify who these people that the town's meager health aid fund can help, the retired navy captain now steering an agricultural town to its loftiest development record explained.
Even if out 1,151 indigents of the town can availed of the PhilHealth Out-patient benefit package while some 4,094 households can avail of the free medical services while enrolled in the government socialized medical benefit program, there is a rather huge need to serve those who still could not avail of the same benefits, he claimed.
He said the yellow card ordinance defines those indigents and issue to the household head the card which makes him and his dependents eligible for the socialized services at the local rural health center.
Card holders and dependents can avail of free or discounted services including consultations, medicines, laboratory diagnostics and ambulance services, the ordinance showed.
The ordinance also puts up a body that would identify the beneficiaries according to an inset established criteria or categorization, validation and enrollment or registration until all poor beneficiaries can be hopefully covered, the mayor continued.
According to the measure, criteria for availment would be based on annual household income over dependents and compared to the annual subsistence threshold of P6,000 or more but lesser than the pegged national poverty threshold of P9,000 per annum.
The ordinance also puts up a validating mechanism based on housing, source of income, education and landholding. (PIA)