AGRI Party-list Rep. Wilbert T. Lee (Rep. Lee's office)

In a bid to hasten the enhancement of Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) benefits, AGRI Party-list Rep. Wilbert T. Lee filed House Bill (HB) No. 11297, which sought to amend Republic Act (RA) No.11223 or the “Universal Health Care (UHC) Act”.

Specifically, Lee's bill calls for an increase in the budget for administrative costs of the state health insurer. 

This is expected to boost PhilHealth's actuary teams and other necessary personnel in implementing healthcare benefit increases. 

According to Lee, the current version of the UHC Law puts greater emphasis on premium collection rather than the enhancement of benefits, thus, there is a need to strike a balance between these responsibilities to improve service delivery and provide sufficient healthcare coverage. 

“Dapat busy ang PhilHealth sa pagdaragdag ng mga benepisyo at pagbabayad ng claims, hindi lang sa pagkolekta ng premium,” Lee said an the sidelines of a recent House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability hearing on PhilHealth.

(PhilHealth should be busy working on additional benefits and the payment of claims, and not just with the collection of premiums.

Lee, the first to expose that PhilHealth has billions of available funds in September 2023, paved the way for the implementation of its improved benefits after over a decade of not being reviewed.

Before this, PhilHealth benefits were no longer responsive to the hospitalization cost of the beneficiaries. 

Among the benefit enhancements of PhilHealth that Lee successfully fought for include the 30 percent increase in benefits implemented last February 2024, another 50 percent increase this 2025, free eye check-up and free prescription glasses, free dialysis, expanded coverage for breast cancer treatment, new benefit package for kidney transplant and heart ailments, and outpatient emergency care services.

Earlier, Lee also filed his initial amendments to the UHC Law through HB No. 10995. Among the key changes included in this measure was the provision that the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Council will review and assess the amounts of each PhilHealth benefit package and ensure that these are up-to-date.