EDITORIAL - Health care inflation

All surveys in recent years have shown the high prices of goods and services as the biggest concern of most Filipinos, with the Marcos administration consistently getting the lowest performance ratings in taming inflation. The focus has long been on the rising prices of food, particularly rice, as well as fuel and transport costs.

There is another sector, however, where goods and services are constantly on the rise: health care. This year, medical costs in the Philippines are projected to post a double-digit increase, the second highest in the Asia-Pacific. A survey conducted by London-based multinational advisory, broking and solutions company WTW or Willis Towers Watson showed that health care benefit costs in the Philippines are expected to go up this year by 18.3 percent.

While the figure in the WTW Global Medical Trends Survey is down slightly from the 19.3 percent posted in 2024, the company reportedly sees the rate staying elevated over the long term. The high medical costs tripled the losses of the health maintenance organization or HMO industry in the Philippines from 2022 to 2023, according to WTW.

The survey also reflects the high cost of medical care in the country. Even many of those who are covered by private HMOs complain about the cost and inadequacy of health care services. The problem is always worse for those from lower-income households who rely solely on state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. Those who lack the means to contribute to PhilHealth are supposed to be covered by the state health insurer through its government subsidy.

For this year, however, as the nation knows, that subsidy has been scrapped by Congress in the General Appropriations Act, which President Marcos has signed into law with a few line items vetoed. The scrapping of the subsidy came on the heels of the restraining order issued by the Supreme Court, preventing the completion of the impounding of P89.9 billion in PhilHealth “excess funds” to partly finance unprogrammed appropriations in the GAA for 2024.

There is legal wrangling ahead over the issues surrounding the impounding of supposed savings or excess funds of PhilHealth and all other government-owned and controlled corporations to finance the ever-growing unprogrammed appropriations that constitute the new congressional pork barrel. In the meantime, the WTW survey highlights another major public concern that is begging to be addressed by the government.