PhilHealth can afford premium cuts

SENATE President Francis G. Escudero on Tuesday said the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) can afford to bring down its mandatory contribution rates as its reserve fund has reached nearly P500 billion and its yearly subsidies, which he said should be used lower the premium rates and for more medical services.

“For me, it is better to use this fund to help our countrymen through additional medical services and to lower the premiums they have to pay,” he said in a statement in Filipino.

“There is more or less P500 billion that they can use to absorb to pay for these premiums.”

The Senate president noted that government provides a yearly subsidy of about P70 billion to PhilHealth to carry out its National Health Insurance Program, which covers the premiums of indirect contributors, poor Filipinos and senior citizens.

In August, the Senate passed on final reading a bill that seeks to cut PhilHealth premiums to 3.25% next year from 5% this year under the Universal Healthcare Act.

The measure, if signed into law, would set PhilHealth premium contribution at 3.25% this year for those with a monthly income of P10,000 to 50,000, with incremental increases of 0.25% each year

Senator Joseph Victor “JV” G. Ejercito, who sponsored Senate Bill No. 2620, initially sought a 4% premium rate this year but senators decided to set it at 3.25% since it would be difficult to refund payments made by PhilHealth members since January. 

The agency started hiking its monthly contribution rate in 2019 so that it can sustain the benefits given to its members. The contribution rates this year will stay at 5% from 2.75% five years ago.

PhilHealth spent P75.8 billion for its benefit payouts last year, almost half of the amount paid by state insurer in 2022 at P143 billion and P140 billion in 2021, PhilHealth Executive Vice-President Eli Dino D. Santos told congressmen in May. — John Victor D. Ordoñez