PhilHealth assures members will continue to enjoy medical benefits

Members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will continue to enjoy medical benefits “in the years to come" despite reports of its impending bankruptcy. Its members – comprising 86 percent of the Philippine population – have “no reason to be worried about its financial stability," the agency said in a statement, adding that the National Health Insurance Fund remains stable. “With an investment portfolio of about P91 billion as of July 31, 2009, PhilHealth remains solid, and is poised to remain so in the years to come," the agency said. The statement was issued after a report quoted a PhilHealth vice president who said that the agency may become bankrupt by 2016 if the national government fails to pay its P19.2 billion debt to the state-led corporation. The obligation was incurred from 2001 up to 2008. PhilHealth vice president for actuary Nerissa Santiago disclosed the agency’s impending bankruptcy during a Senate hearing on a bill aiming to provide health insurance for Filipinos. Sen. Loren Legarda, who authored the bill, chairs the Senate health committee. Legarda said she has already ordered the PhilHealth to submit a list of the particular government agencies which have failed to pay their respective contributions. According to Santiago, the government debt to PhilHealth ballooned to almost P20 billion due to the different bases that the Department of Budget Management was using in the salary scale and salary caps for its 79 million members. Despite its debt, the DBM was still able to remit P388 million and P85 million in 2006 and 2007 respectively to PhilHealth. The General Appropriations Act of 2009 has already allotted P610 million. “We continue to bill the DBM for the said amounts, and with close coordination, we remain optimistic that the DBM will fully settle its obligations soon," PhilHealth said. PhilHealth said it was “exerting all efforts" to urge employers to remit their counterpart contributions for the benefit of their employees. The agency said it is enhancing inpatient care benefits, increasing its need to step up its collection of premium contributions from different paying programs. - GMANews.TV