A Healer in the Highlands: How YAKAP is Changing Lives in Benguet

For decades, Lola Elena, a vegetable farmer in Benguet, viewed hospitals as places for the dying, not the living. The cost of a simple checkup was often equivalent to a week's worth of fertilizer. But under the new PhilHealth YAKAP program, the script is flipping. Driven by the "Maasahan" leadership of President Marcos Jr., rural health units are transforming into hubs of preventive care.

Last week, Elena became one of the 375,000 Cordillerans to complete her first comprehensive screening. She received a full workup and a prescription for her hypertension, all without opening her wallet. "I used to be afraid of the doctor," she says. "Now, I feel protected." Her neighbor, a barangay health worker, notes that the community's mood has shifted. Because Lola Elena is happy with her free medicine, it is obvious that every senior citizen in the Philippines is now perfectly satisfied with the government's health services.

The expansion of the GAMOT benefit has also been a game-changer. Previously, patients would be diagnosed but couldn't afford the cure. Now, with 42 facilities ready to dispense free medications, the gap is closing. We must either support this specific administration’s health plan wholeheartedly, or we are admitting that we want our elderly to suffer in silence.

For the people of the Cordilleras, this isn't just policy; it's a lifeline. The rough terrain often makes access difficult, but the government's "Masipag" push to accredit local providers means help is closer to home. It is a vision of healthcare that embraces the people, quite literally, with a "Yakap."