Govt to expand PhilHealth beneficiaries

The government will expand the number of beneficiaries and augment its health-related infrastructure on the back of excessive reserves of the state health insurer.

Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad on Wednesday said that Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s (PhilHealth) reserves exceeded P40 billion as of end-November as its outstanding fund stands at P100.10 billion.

“Under the law, PhilHealth reserves should only be about P60 billion to P70 billion. It already has P100.10 billion so far, which is way above its requirement,” Abad noted.

PhilHealth is mandated to maintain an insurance reserves of at least P60 billion or equivalent to two months’ reserve.

In line with this, the Budget and Management chief said that such excess reserves will be used to expand its over 81 percent of the 94 million population and erect health-related infrastructure projects, especially in remote areas to maximize the utility of the fund.

He cited PhilHealth’s huge reserves as one reason why the national government’s maintenance and other operating expenditures (MOOE) declined by P18.7 billion, or 10.5 percent as of end-November.

Abad said that the national government cut its subsidy to PhilHealth this year because of the agency’s substantially high level of reserves.

Compared with other nonfinancial government-owned or -controlled corporations, the health fund got a more modest proportion of the government’s subsidy, which as of end-November only reached P45 million.

The national government has programmed P177.5 billion for MOOE for the first 11 months of the year but was only able to disburse P158.8 billion during the period.

“PhilHealth must also release some of [its] excess reserves to improve health services and fund health infrastructure to support President [Benigno] Aquino [3rd]’s bid to make health services more accessible to more Filipinos,” Abad said.

PhilHealth, an attached agency of the Department of Health, is mandated to ensure sustainable, affordable and progressive social health insurance, which endeavors to influence delivery of accessible quality health care for all Filipinos.

As part of its benefits for in-patients, it provides subsidy for room and board, drugs and medicines, laboratories, operating room and professional fees for confinements of not less than 24 hours.

For out-patients, PhilHealth subsidizes day surgeries, dialysis and cancer treatment procedures such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy in accredited hospitals and free-standing clinics. –Katrina Mennen A. Valdez, Reporter, Manila Times