PhilHealth woes blamed on lawmakers

A LABOR group blamed lawmakers for the financial difficulties besetting the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and called on the national government to save the state-run health care financier from becoming insolvent.

Former Senator Ernesto Herrera, secretary- general of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, said senators and congressmen have apparently appropriated as their pork barrel allotments part of the health agency’s funds.

Certain politicians distributed “free” PhilHealth membership cards to buy votes, Herrera said. The “free” cards provided health insurance coverage for 12 months.

“The question now is who paid for the premiums of these free cards? Somebody has to pay the premiums. Surely the politicians did not, unless of course they have in fact effectively converted some PhilBealth funds as their pork barrel allocations,” Herrera said.

While the free cards may have actually helped some constituents who later required hospitalization and other services, these could have also damaged PhilHealth’s finances, Herrera said.

At the same time, Herrera stressed that Congress could appropriate a lump sum of P19.2 billion to cover the unpaid dues.

“It has become absolutely imperative for the national government to redeem PhilHealth now—to guarantee the health insurance coverage of its 79 million members, the majority of whom are private and public sector workers,” said Herrera.

PhilHealth officials reckon that the firm lost anywhere from P2 billion to P4 billion annually to fraudulent or padded claims over the last 10 years. –Macon Ramos Araneta, Manila Standard Today