News
RP Hosts International Meet On Social Health Insurance - October 16, 2006
The Philippines is hosting an International Conference on extending social health insurance to informal economy workers from October 18 to 20.
The conference, which will be held at the Mandarin Oriental
Hotel in Makati City, is jointly organized by the Philippine
Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), the German Agency
for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the International Labour Organization
(ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank
(WB). The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is also providing support
to the conference.
Lorna O. Fajardo, Acting PhilHealth President and CEO said the
conference will focus on how to extend financial protection
through social health insurance to workers in the informal economy.
“We’re bringing in experts from a wide range
of disciplines, including the health sector, social security,
microfinance and banking, small and medium enterprises and taxation,
to lead the discussions on this very important topic,”
she said.
Among the guest speakers are Professor William Hsiao of the Department of Health Policy and Management of the Harvard University; Professor Soonman Kwon of Seoul National University, South Korea; Dr. Matthew Jowett, Program Advisor of the social health insurance component of the GTZ and Loraine Hawkins, Lead Health Specialist of the World Bank office, Manila. The three-day event will also have Social Security System (SSS) President and CEO Corazon de la Paz as resource person.
“We expect to have about 200 international and local
participants for this conference,” Fajardo said,
adding that the conference is also an opportunity to understand
the nature of the informal economy and to determine the appropriate
vehicles for extending social health insurance to those in the
informal economy.