MANILA — The Marcos administration is eyeing to spend less on the Department of Health (DOH) and its attached agencies in 2024 and has proposed budget cuts for major specialty hospitals.

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The proposed DOH budget under the 2024 National Expenditure Program is at P311.3 billion, or 3% lower than funding for this year. Of the proposed budget, 66% will go to the Office of the Secretary.

Meanwhile, the following specialty hospitals are facing budget cuts:

• National Kidney and Transplant Institute — P1.2 billion from P1.7 billion
• Lung Center of the Philippines — P561 million from P835 million
• Philippine Heart Center — P1.8 billion from P2.1 billion
• Philippine Children's Medical Center — P1.4 billion from P2.1 billion

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Other attached agencies that got cuts are the Philippine National AIDS Council — to P46 million from P52 million — and the National Nutrition Council, which stands to get P296 million in 2024 from P437 million this year.

The budget for medical assistance to indigent patients will also go down to P22.3 billion from P32.6 billion.

Despite the cuts across the department, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) gets a funding increase in the proposed 2024 budget, to P101.5 billion from P100.2 billion this year.

The Philippine Institute for Traditional and Alternative Health Care, which advocates the development and use of traditional and complementary medicine, gets a bump to P174 million from P156 million this year.

The DOH earlier said it would "collaborate" with legislators after the executive-crafted 2024 NEP gave the agency a P10-billion budget cut for next year.

• DOH to 'collaborate' with legislators after DBM proposes P10B budget cut