Why Health Equity Research Matters 

Many well-meaning health interventions inadvertently aggravate the disadvantage of underprivileged populations. For example, the National Health Insurance Act was developed to assure health care even for the poorest Filipino. However, analysis of utilization rates (Figure 1)  show that richer populations access PhilHealth privileges more than the poor. 

As another example, Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients Program (MAIFIP) funds are allocated to supplement health care funds for indigent patients. However, analysis of these supplemental and discretionary health funds (Figure 2) show that allocations for the richest quintiles are far greater than those for the poor. 

Like any medical treatment, therefore, solutions to inequity must be tested, measured, and monitored. Identifying the systems that produce inequities, whether social, economic, institutional, or structural, reveals where interventions should begin. From there, research can shed light on which solutions work, which work best, and why. 

Figure 1. Bar chart showing the number of Filipinos who used their PhilHealth benefits for hospital admissions per wealth quintile. The poorest quintile has 208 thousand less admissions than the richest, showing a disparity in utilization that can aggravate health inequities rather than mitigate them, as intended by the national health insurance act and universal healthcare law. (De Guzman et al., 2025 unpublished).

Figure 2. Estimates showing the value of discretionary government funds distributed per wealth quintile using data from the 2022 NDHS. Combined, the richer and the richest (₱6.6B) receive more than the poor and the poorest (₱4.8B) disbursed through programs like MAIFIP.