The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has issued an official response to the public regarding the now-controversial 3% mandatory premium rate hike for overseas Filipinos.
PhilHealth outlined that the increase in rates from 2.75% to 3% merely follows provisions from the Republic Act 11223 known as the Universal Health Care Act of 2019, which was signed into law last year by President Rodrigo Duterte, as per its official statement signed by retired Brigadier General Ricardo Morales who now serves as PhilHealth’s President and CEO.
“The purpose of the Universal Health Care Act, as in other societies with the same program, is to provide affordable and adequate healthcare to all Filipinos. Such a program requires funding collected through premium contributions,” said the statement.
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PhilHealth also revealed that their collections from OFWs have reached a total of Php 1.07 billion.
However, the statement stressed that OFWs also benefitted from the Universal Health Care Law, citing a total of Php1.7 billion in claims – where the majority of the amount was for the OFWs’ dependents in the Philippines.
“OFWs claimed Php 1.7 billion in benefits with 69% (Php 1,173,000,000) of claims attributed to their dependents in the country while 31% (Php 527,000,000) was claimed by overseas OFWs,” said the statement.
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PhilHealth then stated that while it is open to exploring ways to help OFWs cushion the impact of the need to pay their premiums, it stressed that it cannot change the law and that they are just enacting its provisions.
“As an agency of government, sensitive to the welfare and well-being of all Filipinos, PhilHealth commits to continue exploring means to soften and alleviate the impact of premium rate increase, but it cannot change the Law,” concluded the statement.
