The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) assured that it has a "robust" fund to continue providing services to Filipinos, its spokesperson said on Wednesday, Sept. 14.
“I would like to say that our finances are robust. We have a reserve fund as of December 2021 of P177 billion,” said PhilHealth Spokesperson Shirley Domingo during an interview with CNN Philippines.
Domingo made the pronouncement following the statement of PhilHealth Officer-in-Charge Eli Dino Santos, during the recent budget deliberations at the House of Representatives, that the state health insurer’s “actuarial life” might only be until 2027.
Domingo explained that Santos’ statement was just a projection, noting that an actuarial study is based on “assumptions, scenarios, and projections and different conditions.”
“He was citing one of the scenarios but we have a lot of activities to counteract ,” said Domingo.
“What can be done to extend the fund life of Philhealth, as I said, there are different factors that the fund life depends on. In the case of PhilHealth, our collection efficiency for contributions of all our members, remittances from national government, now remittances from PCSO (Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office) PAGCOR ,” she noted.
“Of course the way we utilize the fund when we pay for benefits when we enhance our benefits can also contribute to fund life,” she added.
The PhilHealth official also said that they are also doing investment strategy.
“We invest some of the funds to be able to get some additional funding. Last year, we were able to have an earning of P9.5 billion through investments,” she said.
“So all these factors are being addressed and taken care of to ensure long fund life for Philhealth,” she added.
Domingo also assured that PhilHealth can settle different claims.
“With regards to responding to all these health challenges, we have funds to address and pay the claims that will be brought to us. I said earlier that we have P177 billion reserve fund for any eventualities,” she said.
“We would like to say that Philhealth's fund—the fund that you contribute to us, your funds–is being managed well. We are being monitored by financial managers...We are doing a lot of activities, things to make sure that we manage these funds well,” she added.