BARELY two years since it introduced the new Makati Health
Plus (MHP) Card, better known as the Yellow Card, the city government has issued
a total of 103,004 cards to qualified beneficiaries as of December 2006.
Mayor Jejomar Binay said 98 per cent of the current MHP
cardholders are residents, while the remaining two per cent are city employes
living outside Makati. "To ensure that Makati residents derive the optimum
benefits of the program, we have enforced stricter guidelines in screening
applicants. This move has greatly reduced the number of Yellow Card holders from
over 300,000 in 2004 to the current number," Binay said.
The Yellow Card program entitles beneficiaries to subsidized
medical services including outpatient and in-patient care in surgery,
pediatrics, obstetrics, medicine, ENT, ophthalmology, dermatology and
orthopedics at the city-run Ospital ng Makati (OsMak). Emergency cases are
handled by the OsMak and its free-standing emergency care unit, the Acute Care
Center, in Bel-Air.
Binay said a total of 84,351 patients with Yellow Cards were
treated last year at the OsMak and ACC.
He reminded cardholders to renew their cards on their birth
month to avoid inconvenience, especially during emergencies.
Makati’s Yellow Card program was selected as a "best practice" by the Dubai
International Award for Best Practices in 2002 for its "outstanding contribution
toward improving the living environment."
