Gov’t workers assured of health care despite re-enacted budget

MANILA, Philippines — Government workers are assured of health care coverage despite the delay in the passage of the P3.757-trillion national budget for this year, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) acting president Roy Ferrer said yesterday.

In a statement, Ferrer said the late approval of the budget allocation for the employer counterpart of state workers’ health insurance premiums would be immaterial to the latter’s health benefits.

“We assure our members and their dependents from the public sector that they will continue to enjoy their benefits despite the pending approval of the national budget, which is beyond our control,” Ferrer said in a statement.

PhilHealth also stressed that government agencies shall be exempted from interests and penalties “due to the late remittance of their premium contributions to the state health insurer.” 

He said government agencies would just continue deducting and remitting both the employee and employer share in the premium based on the 2018 budget.

“The difference resulting from the implementation of the fourth tranche of the Salary Standardization Law shall be remitted immediately once the proposed 2019 budget is approved,” Ferrer explained.

The Department of Budget and Management earlier announced that payment for PhilHealth premium was among the excluded items in the 2019 budget. The government is now running under a re-enacted budget.