Senator Christopher “Bong” Go on Thursday, January 5 lauded President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for suspending the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s premium rate hikes at the beginning of this year 2023.
Go, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, said Congress was suffcessful in pushing for a P79-billion allocation for PhilHealth, thus, he sees no reason why this would negatively impact the benefits and services that the state health insurance agency provides its members.
On top of the P79-billion, lawmakers also included another P21.17-billion for PhilHealth’s benefit package improvements, which include dialysis coverage, mental health outpatient coverage, improvement of Z-Benefit packages, severe acute malnutrition, all case rate, rationalization of selected medical and surgical procedures, and the implementation of the comprehensive outpatient benefit package, including free consultation fees, laboratory tests, other diagnostic services, outpatient drug benefit, and emergency medical services.
“Siguraduhin natin na ang serbisyong dapat makuha ng taumbayan, partikular na ang pangkalusugan, ay maibigay sa kanila lalo na sa mga mahihirap at walang ibang matakbuhan (Let's make sure that the services that the people should get, especially health, are given to them, especially to the poor and those who have nowhere else to run),” Go said in a statement.
This year, the PhilHealth premium rate is supposed to increase from 4 percent to 4.5 percent in accordance with Section 10 of the Universal Health Care Act.
But due to the prevailing socio-economic challenges faced by Filipinos, Marcos issued a memorandum suspending the planned increase in PhilHealth contribution this year.
Go said it is important for the governmnt to prevent hunger among Filipinos in light of the global challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and the country’s gradual transition to full economic recovery.
“Importante na walang magutom. Kaya sa panahon ngayon, tulungan natin ang taumbayan at huwag na dagdagan pa ang bigat ng kanilang mga pinapasan para walang maiwan sa ating muling pagbangon (It is important that no one goes hungry. So in this day and age, let's help the people and not increase the weight of their burdens so that no one is left behind in our recovery),” the lawmaker stressed.