Chiz: PhilHealth has enough fiscal space to cut premium rates

FILE: Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero. (Photo: Chiz Escudero/Facebook)

By Wilnard Bacelonia, Philippine News Agency

MANILA – Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Tuesday said the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) can afford to slash the mandatory contribution paid by its members due to the huge amount of unutilized funds that it has accumulated over the years.

In a news release, Escudero noted that PhilHealth’s reserve fund has now reached nearly PHP500 billion, plus the substantial annual government subsidy that it receives.

In 2021, the subsidy to PhilHealth amounted to PHP71.3 billion, PHP80 billion in 2022, PHP79 billion in 2023, and for this year, it was down to PHP40.3 billion.

“The huge subsidies allocated annually to PhilHealth, coupled with its continually increasing reserve fund, provide the state health insurer ample room to reduce the premium rate of its members,” Escudero said.

He also maintained that the government would still be able to reallocate a significant amount of funding for other purposes for seven years if these subsidies were to be sourced from the firm’s reserve fund.

“Pero imbes na gawin ‘yon, isa sa mga istratehiya na pwede nilang pag-aralan ay ang gamitin na lang (ang reserve fund) para pababain yung premium na karamihan naman ay gobyerno rin ang nagbabayad (But instead of doing that, one of the strategies they can study is to just use the reserve fund to lower the premium, which is mostly paid by the government anyway),” Escudero said.

The Senate President has been pointing out to PhilHealth that it is losing around PHP20 billion a year in terms of value by not utilizing its PHP500 billion reserve fund.

“Kaya para sa akin mas maganda na gamitin ang perang ‘yan para matulungan ang ating mga kababayan sa pamamagitan ng dagdag na serbisyong medikal o sa pagbaba sa binabayaran nilang premium (So for me, it is better to use that money to help our countrymen through additional medical services or by lowering the premium they pay),” he said.

The Senate has already approved the bill seeking to amend Republic Act 11223, or the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act, to bring down the premium rate for direct contributors of the state insurer.

Escudero is also pushing for PhilHealth to adjust its case rates based on the amount of contributions paid by its members, ensuring that members paying higher premiums receive higher benefits.

He noted that this “adjustment mechanism” for premiums and benefits was also mentioned by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. during the recently-held Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting in Malacañang.