[OPINION] Beyond the SONA, make healthcare a social commitment and economic strategy

Listening to the healthcare section of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s fifth State of the Nation Address, I found myself thinking less about what was said than about what could be added to the conversation. The President highlighted important priorities: strengthening Universal Health Care, expanding PhilHealth benefits, investing in preventive care, improving access to medicines, building more healthcare facilities, supporting medical scholarships, and expanding programs such as BUCAS and specialty centers. These are essential investments for millions of Filipinos. But the conversation should not end with healthcare delivery alone. We should also ask whether we are building a healthcare system that can become one of the country’s engines of innovation, investment, and economic growth. Two weeks earlier, I participated in a panel at Bio Asia Taiwan alongside global healthcare investors, including representatives from Vivo Capital. The contrast was striking. Rather than discussing hospital budgets or insurance reimbursement, governments, investors, scientists, and entrepreneurs were asking different questions: How do we attract biotechnology companies? How do we commercialize university research? How do we become a destination for clinical trials and pharmaceutical manufacturing? How do we accelerate AI-driven drug discovery? Most importantly, what does it take to attract long-term investment? These are questions the Philippines should be asking more often. Too often, healthcare policy in the Philippines is framed primarily as an expenditure. We debate hospital budgets, insurance coverage, and annual appropriations. Those discussions are necessary, but healthcare is also one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economic sectors. Across Asia, countries have recognized this reality. China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and increasingly Thailand have demonstrated that healthcare is not only social policy; it is also an economic strategy. While expanding access to care, they have simultaneously built globally competitive industries in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, clinical research, manufacturing, and medical tourism. Thailand may offer the most relevant lesson for the Philippines, showing that universal healthcare and economic competitiveness are not mutually exclusive but can reinforce one another. The Philippines risks falling behind on two fronts. We continue to face gaps in healthcare delivery while also failing to establish ourselves as a competitive destination for biotechnology investment, pharmaceutical research, medical technology manufacturing, and clinical trials. These should not be viewed as separate challenges. Government must continue strengthening Universal Health Care while also creating the conditions for healthcare innovation and investment to flourish. Fortunately, the Philippines already possesses many of the ingredients needed to compete. We have internationally respected physicians and nurses, English-speaking scientists and engineers, strong academic institutions, competitive labor costs, and a strategic location within Asia. The challenge is transforming these strengths into a globally competitive healthcare ecosystem. That means competing to attract biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical technology firms, contract research organizations, clinical trials, diagnostics, and digital health companies. It also means expanding public-private partnerships beyond hospital construction to include laboratory networks, advanced diagnostics, translational research, healthcare manufacturing, and innovation hubs. Government’s role is not to replace private enterprise but to create an environment where innovation and investment flourish while ensuring every Filipino has access to quality healthcare. We should also become more creative in how healthcare is financed. During a recent conversation, a friend shared his experience working on Turkish government financing during a period of severe inflation. Faced with extraordinary fiscal constraints, policymakers designed new treasury bills to continue financing national priorities. The lesson is not that the Philippines should copy Turkey, but that countries facing fiscal constraints often succeed by finding innovative ways to mobilize capital rather than abandoning investment. Blended finance, public-private partnerships, development finance, and outcome-based funding deserve greater attention as we build the next generation of Philippine healthcare. Healthcare deserves to be viewed with the same strategic ambition that we apply to other high-value industries. Unlike many sectors, it generates returns in multiple dimensions. Better health improves workforce productivity. Biomedical industries create skilled jobs, attract foreign investment, strengthen universities, expand the country’s tax base, and create opportunities for Filipino scientists, engineers, and healthcare professionals to build rewarding careers at home rather than abroad. Universal Health Care and economic competitiveness are not competing objectives — they reinforce one another. The next chapter of Philippine healthcare should therefore move beyond debating how much government spends and begin asking how healthcare can become one of the country’s most important drivers of innovation, investment, and inclusive economic growth. Healthcare will always be a social investment. It improves lives, protects families from financial hardship, and strengthens communities. But it is also an economic investment. Few sectors offer the same potential to create high-value jobs, attract investment, build globally competitive industries, and expand the country’s knowledge economy. The Philippines already possesses one of the greatest competitive advantages: its healthcare workforce. Filipino doctors, nurses, researchers, allied health professionals, and caregivers are respected around the world. If we can combine that strength with sound policy, strategic investment, and a thriving innovation ecosystem, healthcare will no longer be viewed simply as a budget to be funded. It will become one of the Philippines’ most important long-term investments — improving lives while creating jobs, attracting investment, strengthening our economy, and leveraging one of our greatest national strengths: our healthcare workforce. – Rappler.com Dr. Jaemin Park is an adjunct professor at the University of the Philippines College of Public Health and works across Southeast Asia on healthcare financing, medical innovation, and public sector reform.