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Explaining the Large Disparities in Health in the Philippines


This Policy Note explains the large disparities in health status between the poor and the nonpoor in the Philippines. Key factors include: (1) the persistently large social inequity and chronic poverty; (2) severe underinvestment of the government in health facilities, services, and manpower since the 1970s despite the ballooning population; (3) political instability due to the insurgency problem which has further reduced access to care among households in areas of civil unrest; (4) the character of jobless growth of Philippine development; (5) the archipelagic nature of the country which impinges adversely on the delivery of health resources and households` access to health care; and (6) the frequent disasters in the country and environmental risks, heightened by climate change, which further contribute to health inequity. These challenges are aggravated by long-term perceptible changes in the country`s demography and epidemiology, which often escape officials` focus on the short-term, immediate, and emergency concerns of governing and management. Inefficiency and governance problems exacerbate the situation.

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