Sixty percent of Filipinos die without seeing a doctor. This is according to the 2013 Philippine Health Statistics of the Department of Health (DoH). Interestingly, this was the same finding of the DoH-Philippine Institute of Development Studies Baseline Studies on Health Care Financing Reforms conducted in 1991. In short, over a span of 25 years, we have not made a dent on a very important measure of access to health care. Both human resources for health and health infrastructure are severely lacking.

On the average, 1,667 Filipinos share one doctor; each hospital bed is allotted to about 1,000 Filipinos. These fall short of the global standard of 1,000 individuals per doctor and 200 per hospital bed. Truly, the current capacity of the Philippine health sector leaves much to be desired. The health sector is operating beyond full capacity.