Ejercito wants half of OFWs' PhilHealth contributions subsidized by gov’t

Senator JV Ejercito on Wednesday proposed for the government to subsidize half of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) premium contributions of the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to help with their finances.

During the Senate health and demography committee hearing on measures amending the Universal Health Care (UHC) law, Ejercito floated the idea of the government shouldering at least half of the PhilHealth contributions of the migrant workers.

“Kalahati na lang ang babayaran ng OFW, kalahati will be subsidized by the government. ‘Yan ang nakikita kong compromise. Pag-a-aralan natin kung kaya,” he said.

(The OFWs will only have to pay half, then the other half will be subsidized by the government. That's the compromise that I see. Let's study if that’s possible.)

“We will have the balance. Pag-u-usapan pa natin. Mahabang usapan pa ito (we will still talk about this as this will be a long discussion),” he added.

PhilHealth acting president Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said only the families of the OFWs left in the Philippines benefit from their contributions.

However, if OFWs get hospitalized abroad, they could apply their hospital expenses for reimbursement in the Philippines, according to PhilHealth executive vice president and chief operating officer Eli Santos.

“If an OFW that is confined in a hospital abroad, he or she can claim for reimbursement with the hospital expenses here in the Philippines. All that are needed are documents pertaining to the hospitalization of that OFW,” he said.

Santos, however, said the state health insurer has yet to provide data to the Senate committee as to how many OFWs have already submitted their claims for reimbursement in the country.

For his part, Senator Raffy Tulfo, who chairs the Senate migrant workers committee, said the PhilHealth contribution of the OFWs should be voluntary.

“I believe that we should exempt migrant workers from the requirement to pay contributions to PhilHealth. These workers are paying something that does not fully address their healthcare needs due to the nature of their work and their status as overseas workers. This is simply unacceptable,” he said.

“We have to remember that these workers are the breadwinners of their families… ‘Yung halagang P8,700 na annual contributions sa PhilHealth ay marahil maliit sa nakakarami, pero mabigat na talaga ‘yun sa kanila tapos ibibigay pa sa PhilHealth,” he added.

(The amount P8,700 for the annual contributions to PhilHealth may only be small for many, but this is already a burden for OFWs.)

Ejercito had proposed that the premium contributions of migrant workers and self-employed individuals shall be based on the income floor and that the unpaid premium contributions of distressed or repatriated migrant workers shall not be collected upon their arrival in the country.

Failure to pay PhilHealth contributions shall not be a ground for non-issuance of overseas employment certificate (OEC) of a migrant worker, he said.

Funding gap

During the same hearing, the Department of Health (DOH) also said there is a funding gap of P255 billion in order for DOH and PhilHealth to fully implement the UHC costing requirements this year.

Citing the UHC Medium Term Expenditure Program (MTEP), DOH Undersecretary Kenneth Ronquillo said the “high scenario” budget requirement supposedly received by the DOH Office of the Secretary (DOH-OSEC) should be P403 billion, and P163 billion for PhilHealth.

However, he said the signed 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA) only allocated P215 billion for the DOH-OSEC and P100 billion for PhilHealth.

With this, he pointed out a P188 billion funding gap for the DOH-OSEC and some P68 billion for the state health insurer, totalling to around P255 billion.

“The funding requirement for UHC in the medium term should be realized by the national government so that the DOH and PhilHealth will be able to perform [their] roles towards the attainment of UHC. The government, particularly the legislators, Department of Finance, the DBM, should explore other options in expanding the fiscal space for health in the Philippines to cover shortfalls such as the earmarking from tax revenues for health, realignment of the overall government budget to priority health programs…and renegotiation with LGUs on their accountabilities as expected in the transition plan,” Ronquillo said.

Reacting to this, Ejercito asked the health official what programs under the UHC will be affected in case the “high scenario” budget requirement is not met.

Ronquillo answered that the health facilities and human resources for health are the high cost drivers for the implementation of the UHC.—AOL, GMA Integrated News