Govt pays PhilHealth P5B in overdue premiums for indigents

The national governments’ share of unpaid indigents’ health insurance premiums left by the previous administration – totaling P6.5 billion – has been partially paid with the release of P5 billion by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). Budget and Management Secretary Florencio B. Abad said remaining balance of P1.5B is scheduled for release to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) later on. “Universal healthcare coverage for all, especially for the poor and the vulnerable, is a priority of President [Benigno] Aquino [III]. To ensure the integrity of the healthcare fund for indigent Filipinos, we have to settle the obligations left unpaid in the previous administration," he said in a statement posted online Friday in the Official Gazette. Abad noted that under the previous administration, the national government had remitted only P3.85 billion to PhilHealth from 2007 to 2010 instead of the supposed total counterpart payment of P10.35 billion. To benefit 4.7-M indigent families, 1.4-M informal households “The non-payment of past obligations is one issue; the question as to whether PhilHealth support recipients are really indigent households is another. Under the Aquino administration, we will make sure that the program will only be used for the healthcare of the poor, and not for the political agenda of a few," he said. Abad said that to properly identify indigent and informal sector households for the distribution of PhilHealth cards, the Department of Social Welfare and Development will use the National Household Targeting System that it uses for its conditional cash transfer program. For 2011, the national government is set to release by September P3.5 billion for the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) to cover about 4.7 million indigent families the whole year round. On top of this, 1.4 million informal households will also be covered by the program. All the beneficiaries will be chosen from indigents identified under the National Household Targeting System. Missed target of universal health coverage But veteran journalists group VERA Files and the nongovernment organization INCITEGov came out with a report chiding PhilHealth for missing the December 2010 target set for it by the National Health Insurance Act of 1995 (Republic Act 7875) for 100 percent universal coverage for indigent Filipinos. The report said “the agency has been hobbled by a ‘conservative mindset’ as well as a sluggish executive committee." As for the “informal sector," the report said this refers to those who are neither indigent nor employed by an agency that automatically deducts PhilHealth premiums from their income; this sector ranges widely “from the fishball vendor to the practicing doctor or lawyer" who take full advantage of PhilHealth benefits because they know more about it than indigents. The report also pointed out that President Aquino had given PhilHealth a new three-year timetable to institute reforms, and set a new deadline for universal health coverage —2016 or an extension of five more years. Last week, Aquino delivered a speech before new doctors, saying that PhilHealth would now be shouldering up to 70 percent of the hospital bills of its members, which is doubled than the previous 34 percent. He had then also mentioned the P3.5 billion allocation for PhilHealth premiums, adding that a new case payment mechanism will be adopted by the agency to ensure transparency and timely disbursement of benefits. — MRT/KBK, GMA News