How PhilHealth is promoting price transparency to lower the price you pay for drugs
Know your drug prices!

The prevailing high cost and wide price variation of drugs impede the access of the greater majority of Filipinos to timely and quality healthcare. Many essential drugs are unaffordable to the average Filipino, thereby depriving them of health by curtailing treatment, prevention, and control of illnesses.

This prompted Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to declare in her first SONA, that the government shall exhaust all efforts to cut in half the costs of exorbitantly priced essential medicines, especially those commonly bought by the poor, making these more affordable, accessible and available to the masses. In realizing the Presidentís directives, the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) have embarked on various strategies to achieve this.

It all begins with the public knowing the right price of their medicines at any given time. This is what a revitalized PhilHealth ís Drug Price Reference Index (DPRI) provides as a service to the Filipino citizenry.

Working under Health Secretary Francisco Duque III ís framework of FOURmula One for Health (F1), both agencies have worked together with other public agencies, private and international organizations, consumer groups and the academe to achieve price transparency and to disseminate this vital information to the public.

The DPRI was developed to help answer the need of the Filipino to have access to affordable and quality drugs. As the largest purchaser of health care, PhilHealth can help make essential drugs and health care available and affordable. Through the DPRI, PhilHealth and DOH aim to promote drug price transparency, rational and fair drug pricing, and rational drug use.

This initial listing of prices shall inform the public of the price range for a select number of essential drugs. PRICE TRANSPARENCY will be the initial step to empowering consumers and improving their accessibility to drugs. The consumer is encouraged to refer to this list when making decisions on drug purchases. Empowered with this information, the public shall be able to demand for lower drug prices.

PhilHealth will be vigilant, and will continue to monitor drug prices and recommend the appropriate prices of drugs. Eventually, a reference price for all the drugs in the Philippine National Drug Formulary shall guide drug reimbursements of PhilHealth beneficiaries and all other government drug purchases.