SEN. Joseph Victor Ejercito yesterday said most senators are inclined not to grant the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) a P74-billion subsidy next year because of the agency’s huge excess funds.
“That’s the plan of the senators, not to give the subsidy. Last year, we granted subsidy but they declared to have savings. I would rather they ask for subsidy because their funds for the beneficiaries are depleted, because that will mean they are doing their job of helping the beneficiaries,” Ejercito said in Filipino in an interview with radio dzBB.
“But what they did was declare they have savings then ask for subsidy. It seems we are fooling ourselves,” he added.
PhilHealth subsidy is provided by the government for medical assistance programs that helps Filipinos with health costs regardless of social class. It is used to pay for health insurance premiums of indirect contributors, such as indigents.
Ejercito and other politicians, and groups have been questioning the transfer of PhilHealth’s excess funds to the National Treasury. Recently, the Supreme Court stopped the fund transfer.
Ejercito said PhilHealth officials must be made to understand that the agency is not a private company that needs to have surplus funds or big earnings.
He said PhilHealth funds are primarily aimed at helping its beneficiaries reduce their own expenses when they are hospitalized or have undergone laboratory examinations.
He also said PhilHealth looks at itself as private company, and is trying to impress economic managers by saying it has reserve funds. “That should not be the case. All of its funds should be spent. The UHC (Universal Health Care Act) is a 10-year program and we are now entering the fifth year. The case rates should have been adjusted. I think they have to be reoriented or least have a revamp or change in leadership,” he said.
He said the UHC Act, of which he was the principal author, was meant to ease the burden of PhilHealth beneficiaries.
He said he will ask the Senate leadership to suspend their rules to allow the PhilHealth chief to directly answer their questions when the agency’s proposed budget for 2025 is tackled in the plenary.
Ejercito earlier said PhilHealth has to explaining why it is asking for a P74-billion subsidy when it has unused funds amounting to P89.9 billion. He said he was wondering why PhilHealth wants the subsidy when it does not fully use the funds.
According to the Senate committee report on House Bill No. 10800 or the House of Representatives’ version of the proposed national budget, PhilHealth is asking for P74,431,930,000 but the Senate decreased it by P5.7 billion, leaving the agency with P69.7 billion.
This year, PhilHealth got a subsidy of around P61 billion.
