Lawmakers to probe PhilHealth

LAWMAKERS have pressed for a thorough congressional probe on the real financial status of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. following a controversial circular issued by the health insurance agency which effectively made it nearly impossible for local government units to sustain payment of premiums for their beneficiaries.

House Assistant Majority Leader and Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles and Western Samar Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento underscored the need to look into PhilHealth’s new payment scheme as he raised the possibility that the country’s only public health insurance system could be in deep financial trouble.

Nograles, a member of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, said the PhilHealth circular increasing LGU PhilHealth contributions by as much as 100 percent is “just too drastic and absolutely shocking.”

“This increase makes you think that PhilHealth is in trouble and is no longer financially sound. It’s too drastic an increase. I think that PhilHealth should bear in mind that it was created to be the government’s primary instrument to ensure that quality health care is accessible to all,” Nograles said.

Nograles added that LGU-sponsored PhilHealth beneficiaries are poor and live in subsistence conditions and this plan to double the cost of premiums would definitely defeat the very purpose of creating a government health insurance company like PhilHealth.

“PhilHealth was not created so that the government can make profit. If you increase the rates, many of the estimated 3.8 million Filipinos sponsored by the LGUs are in danger of being delisted as PhilHealh members because our LGUs can no longer afford paying their premiums. That does not really attain the universal coverage targets mandated by the PhilHealth law,” he said.

Sarmiento, member of the House committee on local government, joined the call to probe PhilHealth as he noted that this move to adjust premium cost by as much as 100 percent for LGUs and self-paying members could sabotage the government’s effort to expand the coverage of PhilHealth and make it accessible to all. –Maricel Cruz, Manila Standard Today