Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said Monday the use of Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s idle funds for the government’s priority programs and projects will not adversely affect its members or its plans to expand benefit packages this year.
“The Department of Finance’s [DOF] move is consistent with the medical principle of ‘do no harm’. I repeat, it won’t affect the daily operations of PhilHealth, and the members’ contribution won’t be touched,” he said.
Recto said that even if the P89.9-billion unused government subsidies would be transferred to the National Treasury, PhilHealth is still equipped with around P550 billion in its coffers, which is more than enough to increase the benefits of its direct and indirect contributors, covering two to three years of expenses.
Salve Basiano, the sectoral representative for seniors to the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), and Paz Basconcillo, advocacy officer and board member of the Confederation of Older Persons Association of the Philippines (COPAP), earlier expressed dismay over the diversion of the P89.9-billion PhilHealth funds to the unprogrammed appropriations of the national budget.
Basiano and Basconcillo, at a press conference on July 31, expressed their opposition to the transfer of PhilHealth funds to the National Treasury. They said PhilHealth funds are owned by members and should be used solely for their benefit.
“We all know that the money held by the government or used by anyone in the government is owned by the people. It comes either from taxes or from our premium contributions given directly to PhilHealth,” they said.
Recto assured members, however, that PhilHealth’s benefits would even increase, and PhilHealth’s income would remain substantial.
“The benefit packages for PhilHealth members will be increased this year by more than 30 percent. Then for serious diseases like breast cancer, which is now given P100,000, it will be increased to 1.4 million. And there are many others,” Recto said.
Recto said that by the end of 2024, PhilHealth would have a net income of P61.18 billion. The income of PhilHealth has steadily increased since 2019, from P4.66 billion to P173.46 billion in 2023.
PhilHealth will receive another P70 billion-worth of government subsidies next year which will be used to further expand its benefit packages, he said.
“It is our job at the DOF to find enough funds to support the government’s expenses which reach P15.8 billion per day without imposing additional taxes or debt,” Recto said.
“There are dormant money that we still pay interest on, it’s better if the rest of it is not used and is just sleeping, it’s a shame, let’s use it,” he said.
The DOF’s move to sweep idle funds of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) is in line with Congress’ order under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2024 to fund the Unprogrammed Appropriations.
The initial PhilHealth remittance of P20 billion to the National Treasury was used to cover the health emergency allowances of health workers and frontliners worth P27.5 billion representing 5.04 million claims.
The rest of the funds will be used to support projects on nutrition, education, agriculture, social development, and infrastructure, which would have numerous benefits to the public.
According to the DOF’s cost-benefit analysis, the projects to be funded under the unprogrammed appropriations will hike real [gross domestic product] GDP growth by 0.7 percent, increase revenues by P23 billion to P24.4 billion and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
