By John Rey Saavedra/PNA
CEBU CITY – Top officials from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will be in Cebu on Tuesday to educate the residents here on the role of the Universal Health Care (UHC) bill in PhilHealth.
PhilHealth acting president and chief executive officer Dr. Roy Ferrer will be joined by PhilHealth vice president for corporate affairs Dr. Shirley Domingo and head of project management team for Claims Dr. Bernadette Lico in a forum to be hosted by the Association of Government Information Officers-Philippine Information Agency-7 on Tuesday.
The top brass from PhilHealth will also discuss the expanded primary care benefit and current statistics, figures, and updates about the state’s top health insurance corporation, the PIA-7 advisory said.
The Senate passed Senate Bill 1896 on its third and final reading last October. According to the statement released on the Senate website, this landmark UHC bill “seeks to guarantee equal access to quality and affordable health services for all Filipinos.”
The bill has “called for reforms in the mandate, responsibilities and jurisdiction of agencies that implement the country’s universal health care program.” These agencies include the Department of Health (DOH), PhilHealth and local government units (LGUs).
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) figures showed that “Filipinos spent around PHP6,345 for their health needs in 2016 or 8.7 percent higher from PHP5,840 health expenditures in 2015.”
Once signed into law, the UHC program will mandate that all Filipinos will be automatically enrolled in PhilHealth so that they can enjoy access to primary health services. Even without the PhilHealth ID card, all Filipinos can avail of the health care benefits.
Also, the bill seeks to add preventive health care services to existing benefits covered by PhilHealth. These include free consultation fees, laboratory fees, and other diagnostic procedures.
This landmark bill will also change the membership categories under the existing system. If UHC bill becomes a law, PhilHealth membership will be divided into two categories, the direct contributors and the indirect contributors.
Direct contributors will include employees, self-employed professionals, and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who can pay PhilHealth contributions. But the bill states that these kinds of members will still be entitled to benefits even when they fail to pay.
On the other hand, indirect contributors will include the senior citizens, indigents, and other members whose contributions to the state’s health insurance will subsidized by the government. In effect, they will enjoy the “no balance billing” when admitted to any ward in government hospitals nationwide.
In a statement, Senate committee on health chairman, Sen. Joseph Victor G. Ejercito, said the UHC bill carries a provision which provides that the funding of the universal health care program will come from the incremental sin tax collections and 50 percent of the national government share from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.
