Finance chief doubts PhilHealth's actuarial life is down to one year

Department of Finance's Secretary Carlos Dominguez on Thursday expressed doubts that Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s  actuarial life is down to a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the state insurer’s information system is in disarray.

“We have told them (PhilHealth) that the current state of their information system does not allow us to actually make secure projections on their fund life because their information system is... in shambles,” Dominguez said in a virtual press conference.

“We pointed this out to them since October of last year,” he said.

DOF's Dominguez was asked to comment on PhilHealth’s statement that the state-run firm will run out of reserves and plunge into a deficit by 2021. 

“We are expecting by 2021 we will be on the red already, so it's only one year because of the pandemic in terms of actuarial life,” PhilHealth acting senior vice president Nerissa Santiago said.

“In terms of keeping it afloat, the government has the responsibility to keep it afloat so we can only survive with additional contributions coming from the government," Santiago said.

She said PhilHealth expects a net operating loss of about P90 billion this year. If the pandemic persists into 2021, she said their operating loss could reach P147 billion.

While Dominguez takes PhilHealth’s word that “probably by 2021, late 2021 or late 2022 they may run out of money,” he said the state-owned firm’s information system “is not robust enough to capture all the data.”

“So we’re saying they have to improve their information so we can make not only a one year projection but a 10-year projection for PhilHealth,” he said.

“In the long-term, we have to fix up the administration of PhilHealth in order to be able to get a good handle of what exactly their liabilities and fund life are,” he added. —LBG, GMA News