Senators chide PhilHealth over return of excess P90B funds to nat'l gov't

Senators on Tuesday chided the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) over the return of almost P90 billion worth of excess funds to the national government.

Senator Bong Go, who presided over the hearing on the matter as chairperson of the Senate health and demography committee, said there may be reasons that would justify that the transfer of P89.9 billion excess PhilHealth funds to unprogrammed funds is legal but, he said this is morally unacceptable.

"Bakit may ibang paglalaanan ng pondo na dapat ay para sa kalusugan? Bakit may P90 billion na excess funds ang PhilHealth na puwede sigurong magamit para palawakin at palakasin pa ang benefit packages?" Go asked.

[Why do we have to divert funds which should be for health purposes? Why is there P90 billion excess funds which could be used to expand and strengthen benefit packages.]

"Legally, baka meron kayong magandang sagot o palusot. But morally? For me, this is unacceptable...Hindi po katanggap-tanggap na may pondong nandyan na hindi nagamit para matulungan ang bawat Pilipinong miyembro naman ng PhilHealth. Nagtityaga na po ang Pilipino sa hindi gaanong kalakihang benepisyo dahil akala nila wala na kayong pera," he added.

[Legally there might be an answer. But morally? For me this is unacceptable. Unacceptable is the fact that there are funds which could help PhilHealth members. Filipinos make do with little benefits knowing that there are not enough funds.]

Go said the funds intended for health programs should be used to help patients, fixing health facilities, and the unpaid dues of health workers.

Senator Raffy Tulfo also slammed PhilHealth over the recent development, saying this shows their incompetence.

"Ang request ko lang sana sa Philhealth, bago kayo magsauli ng pera, pag-isipan ninyo muna kung ano pa 'yung pwede pang pagagamitan ng pera sa perang 'yon dahil for me, 'yung pagsauli niyo ng pera indikasyon na kayo ay incompetent. Hindi niyo ginagawa nang maayos ang inyong trabaho. Nagpapakita kayo na wala kayong diskarte. Hindi kayo nag-iisip," Tulfo said.

[My only request to PhilHealth is before they return funds, think where you can use such before for me, returning the funds smack of incompetence. You're not doing your job properly. It shows you have no strategy, you're not thinking.]

Senator Risa Hontiveros also said PhilHealth's return of funds to the national government is "alarming" and is "unjustified and potentially compromise the rights and interests of every Filipino to quality, accessible and affordable healthcare."

Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa also questioned why the PhilHealth funds were unutilized, prompting its return to the national government.

"Bakit sobra-sobra pala ang pera ng PhilHealth at hindi nagagamit? Yun lang po ang tanong ko. Sigurado ba tayo na wala nang pamilya na kagaya ng pamilya ko noon na namamatay ang kapatid nila dahil walang pambili ng antibiotic? Sana ma-check natin nang husto," Dela Rosa said.

[Why are there excess funds? Are we sure that no family member anymore is dying because they cannot afford antibiotic? We should study this thoroughly.]

'Missed opportunity'

For Senator JV Ejercito, author of the Universal Health Care Law, PhilHealth missed the opportunity to use up the funds to provide relief to their direct contributors.

"Kung mayroon naman palang malaking pondo ang PhilHealth, sana ay naging proactive ito sa pagbubuo at pag-improve sa ilan nang mga existing na benefit packages. Hindi na sana tumaas ang ating out-of-pocket expense," Ejercito said.

[If PhilHealth really has so much funds, they could have been proactive in improving existing benefit packages. The out-of-pocket expense should not have spiked.]

"Sana ay nagkaroon na sila ng sarili nilang initiative para mas mapababa ang Philhealth premiums, mas naging proactive. Hindi na sana nahirapan ang mga Filipino sa pagbabayad ng pang-ospital. Ang masakit pa doon, tumaas pa ang premium contribution ngayong taon," he quipped.

[They should have the initiative to lower the PhilHealth premiums and be more proactive. The members could've been spared from difficulty in paying hospital bills. What hurts more is that, the premium contribution has increased this year.]

Accordance to Congress order

In his opening statement, former senator and now Finance Secretary Ralph Recto explained that the move to sweep the idle funds in government-owned and controlled corporations is in accordance to Congress’ order under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2024.

“To fund the unprogrammed appropriations, Congress determined that there is another way aside from new taxes as well as debts. At ito ay sa pamamagitan ng pagkolekta sa mga natutulog at hindi nagagamit na pera ng GOCCs na binabayaran pa natin ng interest. Ito po ay mismong nakagalay sa 2024 GAA na aming sinusunod lamang,” Recto explained to his former colleagues.

[And this is through collecting idle funds from GOCCs which we are paying with interest. This is stated under the 2024 GAA which we are just following.]

He said that the Department of Finance had consulted the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) and sought the legal opinions of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) and the Commission on Audit (COA) to ensure full compliance with the law and received a favorable legal opinion on the matter.

According to Recto, the DOF was advised that PhilHealth's P89.9 billion unutilized government subsidies are not part of its reserve funds, nor income that is being restricted by the Universal Health Care Act to be used by the national government as a general fund.

“Ito ang payong legal na aming sinusunod. At hindi lamang ito legal, ito’y makakatulong sa paglago ng ekonomiya at pagbibigay ng trabaho,” Recto said.

[This is a legal advice which were are following. This is not only legal but could help in our economic growth and provide jobs.]

The Finance secretary also noted that the projects to be funded by the excess PhilHealth funds will create more jobs and help the country's economic growth.

“Our cost-benefit analysis shows that the projects to be funded by the Unprogrammed Appropriations--na utos ng Kongreso--will hike real [gross domestic product] GDP growth by 0.7%, increase an additional P23-24.4 billion in revenues, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs,” Recto said.

He likewise refuted claims that the excess funds from PhilHealth will be transferred to the Maharlika Investment Fund and clarified that only P20 billion has so far been remitted by the state-insurance firm to the Bureau of Treasury.

PhilHealth President and CEO Emmanuel Rufino Ledesma, for his part, said that the state-insurance firm has P500 billion chest fund.

"It doesn't mean na dahil nawala 'yung P90 billion, mawawalan ng pera ang PhilHealth po. So may natitira pong P500 billion," Ledesma said.

According to Ledesma, it is currently lodged in PhilHealth's cash and investments.

"Prinomise po ni Secretary Ralph na this is one-time, one year aberration...'Yung P89.9 billion po...is not part of the reserve fund of PhilHealth po...It's subsidy po ng GAA," Ledesma said.

But Go asked why the funds were not used to enhance the PhilHealth benefit packages for Filipino patients.

Ledesma, in response, said the benefit packages have not been enhanced for 12 years and these were only reviewed when he joined PhilHealth around two years ago.

"With all due respect to this honorable body, talagang gumagalaw kami. In fact, we are very, very aggressive...We did an initial 30% accross the board last February 14 and we are already in the process of doing another round of 30%," he said.

"Constantly po, we are talking with all the different hospital associations, with the different doctors, with the different hospitals. We are getting all the inputs. 'Yung case packages there's more than 9,000 of them. We need all the experts, inputs, and opinions," he told Go. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News