The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has helped 21,954 Filipinos cope with mounting medical bills by providing more than P157 million in medical assistance for the month of January 2023.
The PCSO released P157,365,606.75 through its Medical Assistance Program, which covers requests for fund augmentation for confinement, dialysis injection, cancer treatment, hemodialysis, laboratory, diagnostic, and imaging procedures, and implant and medical devices, among others.
The PCSO, which is under the Office of the President, is the government’s main arm for raising and providing funds for health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities of national character.
“Patuloy po ang PCSO sa pagtupad sa mandato nitong tulungan ang ating mga kababayan na matustusan ang kanilang mga pangangailangang medikal at pangkalusugan,” PCSO chairman Junie E. Cua said.
“Makakaasa po ang ating mga kababayan na patuloy tayong gumagawa ng mga paraan upang mas marami pang Pilipino ang ating mapaglingkuran,” Cua added.
The PCSO, which is under the Office of the President, is the government’s main arm for raising and providing funds for health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities of national character.
It generates funds for the fulfillment of its mandate through the conduct of sweepstakes, horse races, lotteries and similar activities.
Earlier, Cua had also called for a lowering of the PCSO’s documentary stamp tax rate to 10 percent from the current 20 percent, which he said could provide an additional P2 billion to help more indigent Filipinos through higher contributions to Universal Health Care (UHC).
Doing so would hike PCSO’s contributions by 170 percent, from a projected PHP 1.25 billion to almost PHP 3.4 billion, this year, said Cua.
The added contributions can fund 769,230 hemodialysis sessions for indigent diabetic patients considering that the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) coverage rate per session is PHP 2,600.
Similarly, it can also help 125,000 indigent patients with severe dengue, with PhilHealth covering PHP 16,000 per case.
