The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) should scrap its single period of confinement policy given its current financial standing and accumulation of excess funds. 

Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, pointed this out as he urged PhilHealth to fulfill its promises by maximizing their resources to provide Filipinos with the appropriate healthcare coverage they deserve.

Under PhilHealth’s single period confinement policy, admissions and readmissions due to the same illness or procedure within a specific period of 90 days are only compensated once by PhilHealth. 

But Go, in a privilege speech said PhilHealth should rectify such “unfair and illogical” policy especially for patients in dire need of medical attention.

“Halimbawa po, may buntis. Maselan ang pagbubuntis, nag-bleeding siya. Ngayon, na-admit siya. After two weeks, maselan pa rin po ang kanyang pagbubuntis at bawal na po i-cover ng PhilHealth. Diarrhea, tulad natin na kahit saan kumakain. Kapag nagka-diarrhea ka, after two weeks, nagka-diarrhea ka, bawal i-cover muli (Example is if there is a pregnant patient. One who is frequently bleeding and sensitive. She was admitted. After two weeks, she goes back because of complications in her pregnancy, and yet PhilHealth does not cover this anymore? For this with diarrhea, like most of us who is used to eating at any place. If one gets admitted for diarrhea, gets weel and after two weeks, gets diarrhea again, you are no longer covered the second time),” explained Go, during his recent privilege speech.

“I have raised this during the last hearing, and I want to reiterate that this policy is unfair and illogical given the financial standing of PhilHealth,” Go remarked.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III lauded Go for raising the issue, as he also expressed frustration over PhilHealth president Emmanuel Ledesma Jr.’s seeming indifference on the issue. 

“Yung presidente ng PhilHealth, hindi po ba ‘oo’ lang ng ‘oo’ sa lahat ng katanungan ninyo at parang pangako lang ng pangako (the PhilHealth president seems to be just saying ‘yes’ and ‘yes’ to all of your questions during the budget hearing, and just keeps on promising and promising),” Pimentel pointed out.

“Hindi po ba mas politiko pa siya sa mga senador na naghearing (Isn’t he more of a politician that the senators)?” Pimentel quipped noting the kind of leadership at PhilHealth.

Pimentel said he agrees that common sense should prevail in the decision-making process at PhilHealth and rid the institution of flawed policies like the Single Period Confinement policy.

Pimentel also urged the Marcos government to take a closer look at the qualifications of those appointed to lead critical agencies like PhilHealth.

Go further pointed out PhilHealth has excess funds worth billions and yet there is an apparent mismanagement of these available resources. 

Senators have earlier questioned the need for these excess funds of PhilHealth, which nearly P90-billion, to be remitted back to the national treasury to be used for other purposes.

The PhilHealth chief, Go noted, even boasted it can do so as they still have P500-billion in reserve funds.

“Ang nakakalungkot po dito, Mr. President, habang may namamatay na walang pambayad sa ospital (What is sad here, Mr. President so many patients die because they can’t pay hospital fees),” Go lamented.

Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito also supported Go’s call to scrap the policy, pointing out that it runs contrary to the goals of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act. 

Ejercito pointed out the UHC Act aims to provide accessible healthcare without financial burdens and yet PhilHealth refuses to rectify this policy that is hampering Filipinos access to their needed healthcare.

 

Sen. Robinhood “Robin” Padilla also threw his support for Go’s advocacy saying equitable healthcare for all Filipinos is enshrined in the Constitution.