Use health insurance card as national ID, government urged

Sen. Ralph Recto urged the government yesterday to adopt the health insurance identification card when it implements the national ID system.

The Supreme Court upheld with finality its April 19 ruling declaring a presidential order which establishes a single ID plan for government agencies and government corporations, as constitutional.

Executive 0rder 420, issued on April 13 last year, requires government agencies and government-controlled corporations to streamline and merge their respective identification systems into one ID system.

Recto said the health insurance ID offers a template "of least resistance" because members of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PHIC) consider the health card "a bill of benefits more than a surrender of personal information."

"The government would incur savings by using the existing national health insurance ID system as the national ID template. Contributions for the LGUs for indigents and local government employees are mainly funded by earmarked allocations in several revenue laws," Recto said.

Since the ID system for SSS, GSIS and PHIC cards are already in place, Recto said Filipinos will be receptive once assured that their requests for services are quickly heeded.

Recto said the health insurance card are issued only for government employees and indigents enrolled by their local governments. The initial targets for coverage of the national ID are 25 million covered by the SSS, GSIS, and PHIC.

With the Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of Executive Order 420, the government is poised to collect a lot of personal information that many people have ward off until now.

The card will have a Common Reference Number and 14 pieces of information, as follows: name, address, gender, a picture, a signature, date of birth, place of birth, marital status, name of parents, height, weight, biometric data from two index fingers and both thumbs, any distinguishing marks and tax identification number, Recto noted.