The Philippine Red Cross on Sunday urged the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation to settle its P571 million remaining debt as the PRC secured COVID-19 tests from China at a lower price.
PRC chairman Sen. Richard Gordon said the non-government organization haggled with China to lower its COVID-19 testing to P3,409 so as not to exceed the government's price cap of P3,800.
The PRC in October stopped the coronavirus testing for returning Filipino migrant workers pending PhilHealth's payment of its dues that ballooned then to more than P1 billion.
"PhilHealth is paying P100 million every 10 days. At least they are paying now. But we are also struggling,” Gordon told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo.
"PhilHealth's outstanding balance is now P571 million. Maybe they can settle it…because we haggled with China. We will get test kits at a lower price now,” he added.