The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has expanded its GAMOT medicine program from the original 21 medicines under the Konsulta program to 75 total, after adding 54 new medicines last year under the leadership of then-PhilHealth President and CEO Edwin Mercado, now the Secretary of Health.
Mercado made the disclosure in an interview on DZRH News program Special on Saturday on August 22, as part of the DZRH SONA 2026 Series featuring the Department of Health (DOH) and PhilHealth.
The new DOH chief confirmed that the 54 additional medicines were introduced to address the reality that many of the top causes of death in the Philippines—including diabetes, hypertension, and kidney disease—now require combination therapy rather than a single medicine.
“Ito po ay dinagdagan namin ng limampu’t apat na uri ng gamot. Yung karagdagang gamot, nandoon sa 54 drugs na covered ng Gamot program. Gaya po ng Dapagliflozin, isang bagong uri po ‘yun ng gamot para maprotektahan din yung bato natin,” Mercado said.
He said insulin is next being studied for inclusion in the Gamot program, which would significantly expand access for Filipino diabetics who currently have to buy the medicine out of pocket.
“Nariyan na rin po yung tinitingnan po naming palawakin, ito pong susunod na dagdag po natin malamang po may isasama na ang insulin,” Mercado said.
Each Gamot prescription is now issued with a QR code that the patient can use at any of the 3,000 accredited Gamot pharmacies nationwide, eliminating the need to return to the same clinic or pharmacy where the prescription was originally written.
Each beneficiary is allocated a ₱20,000 annual e-wallet credit for their Gamot medicines, which Mercado said the department estimates is sufficient to sustain a patient’s full course of maintenance medicines throughout the year.
Newly appointed PhilHealth President and CEO Beverly Ho said 80% of the 3,000 accredited Gamot pharmacies are private businesses rather than government pharmacies—a deliberate design choice that leverages the private sector’s supply chain expertise to ensure medicines are reliably available when patients arrive.
Ho said the Gamot program’s expansion to 75 medicines, combined with the Yakap primary care program’s unlimited free consultations and cancer screening, represents the most comprehensive outpatient health benefit package ever offered to ordinary Filipinos in the country’s history.
