PhilHealth premium contribution hike to push through

MANILA, Philippines — There’s no stopping the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) from implementing its scheduled increase in premium contributions come 2021.

In a statement, PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Dante Gierran said the scheduled rate adjustment will take effect as required under the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law.

Under the law, contributors who are earning below P10,000 will have their premium rate fixed at P350 a month.

Those earning P70,000 a month or higher will have their rates fixed at P2,450 per month.

For those earning P10,000.01 to P69,999.99, their monthly premium rate will be computed at 3.5 percent.

“Contributions of employed members shall be equally shared between employees and employers; while those of self-paying members, professional practitioners and land-based migrant workers and other direct contributors with no employee-employer relationship are computed straight based on their monthly earnings and paid wholly by the member,” Gierran said.

He noted the state insurer “fully recognizes the current pandemic situation that is taking its toll on many businesses and livelihood of many Filipinos.”

“However, it is bound to implement the UHC Law which has been the beacon and source of hope for the country that is aiming for better health care services even as it battles COVID-19,” he added.

For Sen. Imee Marcos, the increase in PhilHealth contributions is “cruel and unusual punishment” to Filipinos who have suffered enough from the pandemic.

Marcos pointed out that about 4.5 million Filipinos lost their jobs in 2020, with the unemployment rate at 10.4 percent – the highest in 15 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, the hike in contributions comes amid alleged corruption at PhilHealth, with some of its officials accused of pocketing billions of pesos in taxpayers’ money, the senator said.

“It (PhilHealth) should demonstrate that it can properly deliver its services to its members and that members are satisfied and are getting back what they are contributing,” she said.

Marcos cited the bad timing of the PhilHealth increase, which coincides with that of the hike in Social Security System (SSS) contributions for 2021.

Yesterday, labor coalition Nagkaisa said these increases are an “outright insensitivity.”

“Our government officials must be sensitive to the plight of the workers and employers in these extraordinary times. Millions of workers have no jobs or have jobs but on skeletal work; many companies are not operating or in permanent shutdown,” it said in a statement.

Nagkaisa said the global health crisis is enough justification to hold in abeyance the hike of these mandatory contributions.

Pag-IBIG Fund already opted to defer its hike in contributions supposedly effective on Jan. 1.

Trade unions also urged President Duterte to review appointees in tripartite bodies, particularly in the SSS Commission, the PhilHealth Board and Employees Compensation Commission.

They said no workers’ representatives were appointed to the existing post reserved for the workers in those agencies. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, Mayen Jaymalin