The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) already implemented the five percent hike in its premium rates this month as scheduled under the Universal Health Care law.
“There is no message or directive from Malacañang so we already [implemented] the increase,” PhilHealth president and CEO Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said.
The premium rate will go up to five percent this year while the monthly basic salary ceiling will increase to P100,000. The minimum salary ceiling remains at P10,000.
This means a monthly Philhealth contribution of P500 for a worker who earns P10,000 a month. The premium contribution shall be equally shared between the employee and employer.
Ledesma said PhilHealth expects an additional P17 billion in revenues this year from the increase in premium rates.
“If President Marcos freezes it, that’d be minus P17 billion for the year. But with our current cash position and with all the help we are getting from other agencies, I don’t think that anything will be affected. All the plans will push through as expected,” he said.
Ledesma said the state health insurer will push through with its plan to expand the coverage of its benefits packages this year.
“We commit to fund the proposed rationalization and expansion of benefits to ease the burden of the Filipino people in times of medical need and lessen the out-of-pocket expenses of members,” Ledesma added.
As this developed, a member of the House of Representatives committee on appropriations appealed to PhilHealth to immediately implement the 30 percent increase in all its benefits and coverage.
“New year, more benefits,” said AGRI party-list Rep. Wilbert Lee.
“Not all Filipinos have a health card or HMO. What about our people who only rely on PhilHealth’s answer for treatment? Let’s think about those who choose to die at home, and unfortunately, those who died, because they did not go to the hospital for fear of going into debt due to the amount of expenses,” he added.
He said PhilHealth has enough funds to cover the 30 percent increase in benefits.