Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez yesterday said the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) remains “viable,” even as it has a budget deficit amid the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic crisis.
Dominguez said in a virtual briefing with reporters the agency’s tentative figures indicate that it has a deficit of P25.5 billion as of June.
However, he said PhilHealth has a reserve fund of around P164.1 billion as of June 2021, and the national government’s subsidy as of the same period is P44.6 billion.
“PhilHealth is still very viable on the cash flow basis. But again, let us point out that PhilHealth has in fact incurred a drop in contributions because of the problems with the COVID-19, and there’s also an increase in expenditures but so far, I believe they can handle the situation,” Dominguez said.
“They are, at the moment, struggling with their own systems to pay off their current debts. So PhilHealth is amply covered by the subsidy provided by the national government,” he added.
The finance chief said while PhilHealth may still be able to sustain significant spending due to the pandemic over the short to mid-term, some things may need to change.
“A couple of months is okay. But you know, if it goes on for five years… I think it will do for several years. PhilHealth will not disappear, what will happen is some of the coverage might change. It’s hard to tell exactly,” Dominguez said.
He said the Insurance Commission (IC) has worked on a preliminary report on PhilHealth and the agency is in discussions with the PhilHealth board and management on the findings.
“This is the first time ever that IC has examined government institutions,” Dominguez said.
“I leave that to IC to release when they are ready to release their findings and of course we will not publish it until all the board members of PhilHealth are also aware of those findings,” he added. — Angela Celis
