{"id":253839,"date":"2020-05-04T06:25:53","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T10:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=253839"},"modified":"2020-05-04T06:25:53","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T10:25:53","slug":"philhealth-ordered-to-allow-voluntary-premium-payments-for-ofws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/04\/philhealth-ordered-to-allow-voluntary-premium-payments-for-ofws\/","title":{"rendered":"PhilHealth ordered to allow voluntary premium payments for OFWs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
As OFWs continue to struggle with the impact of the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, Roque said Duterte made this decision in order to ease their burden. (File photo from TOTO LOZANO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to implement the voluntary paying of premium by overseas Filipino workers (OFW), Malaca\u00f1ang said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque announced that Duterte made this directive after OFW groups criticized PhilHealth’s move to increase by .25 percent the premium contribution of OFWs starting this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNag<\/em>-issue\u00a0ng direktiba ang ating Presidente sa<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth\u00a0para gawing boluntaryo po ang pagbabayad ng mga<\/em>\u00a0OFWs\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth premiums (The President issued a directive to PhilHealth to make voluntary the paying of premiums by OFWs),\u201d Roque said in a virtual presser.<\/p>\n

As OFWs continue to struggle with the impact of the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, Roque said Duterte made this decision in order to ease their burden.<\/p>\n

\u201cHabang meron tayong krisis, ang naging desisyon ng ating Presidente \u2018wag na muna tayo magpataw ng karagdagang pahirap sa ating mga<\/em>\u00a0OFWs\u00a0lalung-lalo na sa panahon na napakadami sa kanila ang nare<\/em>-repatriate\u00a0at nawalan na rin ng trabaho<\/em>\u00a0(While there is an ongoing crisis, the President decided not to implement additional burden to our OFWs especially since many of them are getting repatriated and losing their jobs),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said Health Secretary Francisco Duque has also suspended an item in the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Universal Health Care (UHC) law which increases OFWs\u2019 mandatory contribution.<\/p>\n

He said the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will no longer require OFWs to pay higher contribution rates before being issued with an Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC).<\/p>\n

OFWs who fail to pay their PhilHealth premium contributions will still receive their benefits, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cNakasaad po sa batas na ating sinulong na kapag hindi nakapagbayad ng<\/em>\u00a0premiums,\u00a0hindi po \u2018yan dahilan para mawalan ng benepisyo<\/em>. So,\u00a0kahit na anong mangyari po, sagot po tayo ng estado dahil alinsunod po ito sa obligasyon ng estado na magbigay ng karapatan ng kalusugan sa lahat ng mamamayang Pilipino<\/em>\u00a0(It\u2019s stated in the law we pushed for that if OFWs fail to pay their premiums, it won\u2019t be a reason for them to lose their benefits. So, whatever happens, the state will take care of them because it is part of the obligation of the state to provide Filipinos with quality health services),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Not part of UHC law<\/strong><\/p>\n

As former Kabayan party-list representative and one of the principal authors of the UHC bill in the 17th Congress, Roque also explained that the increase in PhilHealth\u2019s premium contribution is not in the law, but part of implementing rules and regulations (IRR) crafted by the state health insurer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWala po sa batas na nagsasabi na dapat patawan ang<\/em>\u00a0OFWs\u00a0ng karagdagang<\/em>\u00a0premium\u00a0sa pamamaraan na nais pong ipatupad ng<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth.\u00a0\u2018Yan po ay nasa<\/em>\u00a0implementing rules and regulations\u00a0para lang po sa kaalaman ng lahat<\/em>\u00a0(It\u2019s not in the law that OFWs should pay additional premium. That is found in the IRR for everybody\u2019s information),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he was not consulted when the IRR was being drafted.<\/p>\n

Roque, meanwhile, assured that Duterte will not tolerate corruption within the PhilHealth and that complaints against former and current PhilHealth officials for their alleged inaction on a scam involving the issuance of fake premium receipts to OFWs are now filed before the Ombudsman.<\/p>\n

\u201cZero tolerance\u00a0po ang Presidente sa korupsyon. Nakabinbin po sa<\/em>\u00a0Ombudsman\u00a0ang mga kaso at inaasahan po natin na ang bagong liderato ng<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth\u00a0ay tignan naman at pag-aralan itong mga reklamong ito<\/em>\u00a0(The President has zero tolerance for corruption. There are cases filed before the Ombudsman and we are expecting the new leadership of the PhilHealth to look into these complaints),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Under PhilHealth Circular No. 2020-0014 dated April 2, the \u201cpremium of overseas Filipinos shall be computed based on their monthly income, to be paid in Philippine peso equivalent, in accordance with the terms of payment and corresponding due dates as prescribed by the corporation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The circular mandates OFWs earning a monthly income of PHP10,000 to PHP 60,000 to pay 3 percent of their monthly salary, higher than the 2.75 percent in 2019.<\/p>\n

In a tweet, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin hit the contribution hike saying it would \u201cnot benefit the OFWs at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno strongly opposed the PhilHealth decision describing it as an \u201cadditional burden\u201d for OFWs amid the prevailing health crisis while an online petition on Change.org has gained more than 300,000 signatures for the repeal of PhilHealth’s move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to implement the voluntary paying of premium by …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":241234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253840,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253839\/revisions\/253840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}