The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) on Tuesday launched a benefit package to address malnutrition of Filipino children at their developmental stage.

The state insurer, together with the Department of Health (DOH) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), created the Outpatient Therapeutic Care for Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), which covers anthropometrics and clinical assessment, counseling, follow-up visits, and other commodities.

PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said the new benefit package affirms the right to dignity of Filipino children and sets a standard for which every Filipino child must have access to nutrition.

“Severely malnourished children of school age develop substantial cognitive deficits that result in grade repetition,” he said during his speech at the launch in Pasay City.

“Even if they survive into adulthood, they are far less likely to be employed in the formal sector and of nowhere earning potential, conditions that further perpetuate the cycle for their own children.”

He added malnourished children are less likely to perform well in school, become productive members of the workforce, and more likely to be trapped in the poverty cycle.

According to joint malnutrition estimates by UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank in 2022, one in three Filipino children under five years old is stunted or too short for their age.

Moreover, the Philippines is second to Indonesia for having the worst conditions in the region.

The outpatient therapeutic care package is available through select PhilHealth-accredited facilities.

Beneficiaries with children under six months old shall receive PHP7,500 while those with children ages six months to 60 months shall receive PHP17,000.

This initiative is the first primary care and social health financing package worldwide which is funded through national health insurance to achieve zero SAM. (PNA)