Lack of access to health care services by millions of Filipinos have prompted the country's lawmakers to take major steps to address this issue while pinning down health care cost as the major culprit. 

Bills and new laws were adopted to address the perceived financial barriers that prevent access by the poor to health care services.  A law, oddly known as the "Anti-Hospital Detention Law," was passed that now explicitly mandates hospitals to treat patients without requiring "deposits" or be discharged from the facility even prior to fully settling their accounts.   Last year, an encompassing legislation was also passed to control drug prices, allow importation of lower priced medicines and early development of generics for patented drugs.

As a virtual forum, the HPN blogsite intends to stimulate health policy discussions among stakeholders by making their views known regarding issues that affect access, affordability and delivery of quality health care services.

CLD will also post event announcements and results of its studies on relevant health care issues and invite comments and suggestions from readers.

Health Policy Network blogsite can be accessed by visiting http://hpn.cld.org