‘Not enough’: Netizens react as Marcos touts zero-balance billing in SONA 2025

The President's remarks are met with both hope and skepticism

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.MANILA, Philippines – In his fourth State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 28, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that additional funds will be given to Department of Health hospitals as part of the government’s zero-balance billing program.

This is is not a new policy. It builds on PhilHealth’s No Balance Billing policy, introduced in 2011, which aimed to protect indigent patients from paying medical bills in government hospitals. It was later strengthened under theOnline, Filipino social media users responded with hope but also raised concerns about the cracks in the public health system. page, Rose Yette Palma said in Filipino, “If all of this is true and becomes real, we should be happy and support it.

But not everyone is convinced. There are doubts about whether zero-balance billing can address the systemic issues faced by the country’s health sector due to gaps in resources, such as better facilities and ample hospital equipment. During a real-time community chat in the Philippine Politics chat room of the Rappler app on the day of the SONA, health worker Oli Acosta, who has been working at a DOH hospital since 2020, reminded that this is not a new policy.

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