Belmonte files bill seeking expansion of PhilHealth coverage

MANILA, Philippines – A House bill seeks to expand the coverage of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to include 38 million poor Filipinos. House Bill 4150, principally authored by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., would be calendared for floor deliberation when Congress resumes session on July 25.

Under the bill to be known as the “Pinoy Health Insurance Act of 2011,” health insurance identification (ID) cards will be issued to those identified as belonging to the 40 percent poor sector of society.

Belmonte said it is the policy of the government to adopt a comprehensive approach to health development and to see to it that basic goods, health and social services are available to everybody, especially the poor.

He said that while Republic Act 7875 or the National Health Insurance Act of 1995 makes available to all citizens affordable and accessible health care coverage, access to health care remains a problem particularly for the poor.

“The objective of the bill is to make sure that the identified indigents would be subsidized by the government and the next poorest of the poor subsidized by the local government units (LGUs),” Belmonte said.

The bill provides for PhilHealth coverage for the poorest 20 percent of the Philippine population as identified through a means test.

Payment of their premium contributions shall be subsidized by the government through the Department of Health.

The bill will also identify the poorest 20 percent of the population that shall be subsidized by LGUs.

House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, co-author of the bill, said the measure aims to establish a roadmap towards universal health care through a refocused and strengthened PhilHealth.

“It recognizes the fact that LGUs have insufficient fund sources, thus compromising the health care services that should be availed of by the poorest of the poor,” Gonzales said. Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Marañon III, chairman of the House committee on health, said the PhilHealth program is designed to cover street hawkers, market vendors, pedicab and tricycle drivers, small construction workers and home-based industries and services.

The bill defines an indigent as a person who has no visible means of income, or whose income is insufficient for the subsistence of his family based on specific criteria set by the national government in accordance with the guiding principles set forth in Article I of the law.

Other authors of the bill are Reps. Marcelino Teodoro (Marikina City), Janette Garin (Iloilo), Philip Pichay (Surigao del Sur), Daisy Fuentes (South Cotabato) and Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III (Quezon). –Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star)