Senators on Wednesday, January 17 expressed their support to Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Ted Herbosa’s appeal to defer the implementation of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s (PhilHealth) premium rate increase for this year.

Senator Joseph Victory “JV” Ejercito, sponsor of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act, said he supports Herbosa’s call, adding that he has already filed a bill adjusting PhilHealth’s premium rate hike.

“Being the principal sponsor of the UHC, I support Sec. Ted Herbosa’s proposal to suspend increase in Philhealth contributions because there is a pending bill that I filed on amendments to the UHC to adjust premium rates as we are still recovering from the pandemic,” Ejercito said in a statement.

“We have done studies on the numbers and Philhealth said it will not affect the benefits and packages,” he said.

Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, also supported the suspension of the implementation of the increase in PhilHealth premium this year.

“Bagama't lifted na ang (Although the) State of Public Health Emergency dahil sa (due to the) COVID-19 pandemic (has been lifted), hanggang ngayon ay ramdam pa ng mga kababayan natin ang epekto nito sa ating ekonomiya (until now our people feel the brunt of its effect on our economy),” Go pointed out.

“Para sa kanila, ang bawat piso ay mahalaga. Pambili pa nila ito ng bigas at ulam (For them, every peso count. They can use extra money to buy rice and other food),” he pointed out.

“Marami pa rin tayong mga kababayan ang nahihirapan sa kanilang hanap-buhay. Huwag na nating dagdagan pa ang bigat ng hirap na kanilang dinadala (We still have so many people experiencing hardships in life. Let’s not add to their misery),” he said.

Go said he can vouch on the DOH’s assurance that PhilHealth's funds are still sufficient to continue to provide proper services to its members.

“As the chair of the Senate Committee on Health, I call on the leadership of PhilHealth to completely suppress the anomalies in the agency, improve its service and make sure that every peso in the people's fund is used for Filipinos,” he said.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros also expressed her support to such calls, echoing the need to consider inflation and the rising cost of utilities and basic food and services.

“The deferment of the implementation of the PhilHealth premium rate hike is not only considerate, but also sensitive to the economic burdens carried by our kababayan,” she said.

“Nagawa naman na noon, ngayon pa kayang may garantiya mula sa mismong Secretary of Health na may sapat na pondo ang PhilHealth para isulong ang pagsasakatuparan ng Universal Health Care (It has been done before, what more now when it is guaranteed by the Secretary of Health himself that PhilHealth has enough funds to promote the realization of Universal Health Care)?” she pointed out.