The Department of Health (DOH) may opt to realign P21.5 billion more under its proposed budget to purchase Covid-19 vaccine booster shots and to fund the special risk allowance (SRA) of health-care workers next year, an economist-lawmaker said.
During the plenary deliberations on the DOH’s 2022 proposed budget late Tuesday, Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo said the DOH could reallocate funds it had earmarked for its programs with historically very low utilization rates.
“Why should we insist on adding to the budget of programs that historically don’t use up their funds?” Quimbo told DOH.
The lawmaker issued the recommendation after the DOH, through House Committee on Appropriations Vice Chairman Duke Frasco, said P4.2 billion could be realigned in the 2022 DOH budget of the agency to buy vaccine booster shots.
“The agency could take 90 percent of the proposed funding for projects with utilization rates of 50 percent to 70 percent to generate around P21.5 billion funding for booster shots and SRA,” she said.
According to Quimbo, programs with low utilization rates are health systems strengthening program, public health program, epidemiology surveillance program, health emergency management program and health facilities operation program.
For his part, Frasco said these programs had low utilization rates due to the implementation of restrictions amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“[But] we agree that for weaker vaccine or the vaccine with lower efficacy, booster [shot] is needed. However, we are just awaiting for vaccine expert panel to provide us the advisory before we can proceed with the booster shot,” said Frasco.
Currently, DOH’s budget proposal for next year, particularly the categorization of the P45-billion Covid-19 booster program, is under the unprogrammed funds.
Unprogrammed items are only funded if the revenue collection of the government exceeds the target.
“For the calendar year 2022, there is P45 billion unprogrammed funds for booster doses which should cover an estimate of 38 million of our population,” Frasco said.
“[But] there is an allocation of P4.2 billion from programmed funds that will be used for the booster shots,” Frasco added. Citing her own computation, Quimbo said at least P60 billion is needed to cover the booster shots and to fund the SRA.
The DOH is asking the Congress for an additional P49 billion to fund the SRA of 526,727 healthcare workers.
Quimbo said allowances of health-care workers were not included in the agency’s proposed budget for next year.