Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Sunday, August 18 said it is imperative for lawmakers to scrutinize carefully the additional subsidy being asked by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth). 

PhilHealth, the senator noted, is asking an additional subsidy of P70-billion for 2025 to expand the number of beneficiaries for next year when they have problems implementing the program and still fail to fully utilize the funds. 

“That's one of my questions. If they can’t spend the money, why do we have to provide subsidy again in 2025? We know they have a problem in implementing and spending money. That’s why I want to pay attention to that these subsidies that are already given to expand the number of PhilHealth members but are not being done by PhilHealth,” Gatchalian said in an interview on Radio DZBB. 

“Maybe it's too much, we don't know. Sometimes these agencies ask for money but they don't look at the so-called absorptive capacity. Are they able to spend or is the money they are asking for is already too much?” he pointed out.

“So we should really look into the details and carefully examine their request this coming 2025. But I agree, that this should be carefully examined and if it is not necessary let's not put it and let's put it somewhere else projects,” he stressed. 

Under this year’s budget, Gatchalian noted PhilHealth already has P61-billion subsidy and yet the government’s budget managers chose to remit P89.9-billion worth of unused subsidies from PhilHealth to the National Treasury. 

Finance Secretary Ralph Recto had earlier defended the Executive branch’s move saying the government cannot afford to let government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) to maintain excess money and keep it idle. 

“So they wree saying they could not utilize it, but in 2025 they will put another P70-billion. I think that’s counter-intuitive. They are not consistent,” Gatchalian pointed out. 

“That’s why we will scrutinize this very carefully. I will personally look into this in the upcoming budget hearings. 

In a separate interview on Sunday, Recto assured that consistent with the medical principle of “first do no harm,” the use of PhilHealth’s idle funds will not affect the benefits of its members, nor its plans to expand the benefits this year. 

According to Recto, the benefit packages for PhilHealth members will increase this year by more than 30 percent. For serious diseases like breast cancer, benefit packages will be increased from P100,000 to P1.4 million, among many otheres. 

“PhilHealth's benefits will increase, and even if it increases, PhilHealth's income is still large, and what we have taken here is not from members' contributions but from government subsidies,” Recto said.

The additional P70-billion PhilHealth subsidy for 2025 will also greatly help increase the benefit packages.

“By the end of this year, PhilHealth will have P550-billion pesos. It will be enough in the next two to three years,” said Recto, a former lawmaker and author of the Universal Health Care law. 

According to Recto, P20-billion of excess funds of PhilHealth that was initially transferred was used to cover the health emergency allowances of health workers and frontliners. Another P20-billion will be transferred on August 21. The funds, together with other unutilized funds from other GOCCs, would be used not just to cover key infrastructure programs but health and education initiatives as well.

Recto emphasized mobilizing these funds would have numerous benefits for the nation. 

“The economy will grow even more, we don't need to borrow, the government will make money, we can even reduce our debt, and poverty in our country will be reduced,” he assured.