By Boyet Martinez Campaign Manager, Team Gaane 2019 . I HAVE worked for and with Kagawad Maria Lourdes Seriña Gaane, M.D. for 13 years now. She deserves to be re-elected as councilor of the city’s 2nd District in the May 13, 2019 elections. Team Okka also deserves the privilege of getting a 20-0 result. Health has always been a major governance issue. As her record would show, Dr. Gaane is the city’s ideal champion for health. As the only medical doctor among the candidates for city councilor with solid record in public health, she is the perfect advocate for improving the city’s health care delivery system. After passing the medical board exams in 1992, she immediately worked as medical officer at the Talisayan District Hospital, and has continuously been working in government ever since. She has served as lead implementer of former governor and now Mayor Oscar Moreno’s adoption of the Philhealth program. Her contributions to the then governor Oca’s medical team resulted in Misamis Oriental winning the 2011 Galing Pook Award for Hospital Innovations. As City Health Insurance Officer in 2014, she provided pregnant women with Free Philhealth membership at the health facility. Her health advocacy is borne by 25 years of public health service. She felt the pervasive poverty Filipinos face daily during medical emergencies. Medical Officer, Municipal Health Officer, and Provincial/City Health Insurance Officer – she has served the public well and made Misor/CdeO proud. Kagay-anons rewarded her efficient management of Mayor Oca’s Philhealth Program by embracing her warmly in the 2016 elections, winning with the second highest number of votes for councilor in the city’s second district. She chairs the Committee on Health, Sanitation, and Health Insurance of the 18th City Council. She sponsored the Ordinance creating a City Health Insurance Department. She has approved (at the Committee Level) the annual Philhealth premiums worth P120 million since 2016. She approved (at committee level) the budgets for two new hospitals (Tablon and Lumbia) worth more than P125 million. She is the vice-chair of the City’s Local AIDS Council, the chair of the Smoke Free Task Force, member of the Local Health Board, member of the City Anti-Drug Abuse Council, and vice-chair of the Social Services Committee of the 18th City Council, among others. Her health advocacy is very clear:
  1. Continued Philhealth Engagement She is committed to continue our engagement with Philhealth. She plans to enroll all indigent Kagay-anon families into Philhealth, thus providing them with financial risk protection.
The city has benefitted well from Philhealth – P200-million City Hospital 2017 Philhealth payments and almost P30-million Philhealth capitation payments annually since 2014. She wants to convince the City’s major health care providers to socialize services for the poor. How? By adopting the no-balance billing (NBB) scheme in their facilities. If implemented, poor patients would not pay any excess hospital bills after Philhealth deductions.
  1. Quality Health Care Facilities. She wants to assure patients of quality care in the City’s health facilities. She would support Mayor Moreno’s vision of transforming the JR Borja General Hospital into the medical center of choice by 2022. She envisions our/more barangay health centers transformed into mini-hospitals via massive capability buildups. 3. 20-0 in 2019!
Governance is a team effort. The whole can never be more than a sum of its parts. Dr. Gaane’s efforts to build more health facilities would be hampered if the chair of the City Council’s Public Works Committee is not from Team OKKA, or if a hostile congressman has other ideas. A super majority would not suffice. With only one term left, Mayor Moreno needs a complete team to finish what he started. Indeed, a 20-0 result would be icing on the cake for the Moreno administration’s masterful nine-year stewardship of City Hall.