PhilHealth requests for P138-B gov't subsidy in 2021

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on Friday appealed to the Senate to grant its request for a P138 billion subsidy in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a Senate budget hearing, PhilHealth Acting Senior Vice President Neri Santiago said the amount is needed to carry out the implementation of the Universal Health Care law but only P71 billion was approved by the Department of Budget and Management in the National Expenditure Program.

"Yung COVID claims po natin for both in-patient and for testing, wala pong naibigay sa PhilHealth para pambayad dito so talagang kukulangin po 'yung P71 billion," Santiago told senators

"Ngayong dumating ang pandemya mas bumaba pa ang koleksyon namin and at the same time mas malaki ang benefit payout," she added.

Senator Imee Marcos said many of her colleagues are quite wary about giving public funds to PhilHealth which has been subjected to a Senate investigation for alleged irregularities last August.

During the said legislative probe, a whistleblower claimed that a "mafia" within PhilHealth pocketed around P15 billion.

"Marami po kasi sa aming mga kasamahan nagsasabi na huwag ninyong bibigyan ang PhilHealth ng karagdagan pagkat nawawala naman lahat ng pera sa PhilHealth," Marcos said.

But Santiago maintained that the government subsidy is important for the state health insurer to effectively operate next year.

Marcos requested PhilHealth to submit a detailed breakdown of its budget request so that the committee could review it.

During the same hearing, Health Secretary and PhilHealth Board chairperson Francisco Duque III said he is amenable to privatizing the state health insurer to address the problem of fraudulent claims. — DVM, GMA News