The latest national controversy regarding the transfer of members’ funds with the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to the national treasury has left most of us members in shock at this travesty.
As most of us have experienced at some point in our lives, this insurance coverage by PhilHealth does not even cover all our hospital and medication expenses.
Then now we learn that this government-owned & controlled corporation that is managing our monthly contributions actually has funds to spare/funds that have not been used, and will be transferred to the government’s General Fund.
We have also experienced how most of our government hospitals are under-funded, with insufficient basic laboratory supplies and services, nor critical equipment like CAT scan, MRI, and even the basic X-rays. These government hospitals also have a shortage of healthcare professionals, and inadequate infrastructure due to insufficient funding.
In a letter to Finance Sec. Ralph Recto, former Health Secretaries Jaime Galvez Tan, Manuel Dayrit, Francisco Duque III, Esperanza Cabral, Enrique Ona Jr., and Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial urged the Finance department to “be sensitive to public opinion, and exercise prudence and caution by not transferring the next tranche of [PHilHealth] funds and succeeding transfers” to the government treasury.
Their letter was signed by at least 65 medical organizations like the Philippine Medical Association, the Philippine College of Physicians, the Philippine Pharmacists Association, the Philippine Nurses Association, the Philippine League of Government & Private Midwives, and the Philippine Physical Therapy Association, while staging a protest action dubbed “white coat rally” at the Philippine General Hospital compound to express their opposition to PhilHealth’s scheduled fund transfer of P10 billion to the national government.
This developed following PhilHealth’s remittance of the initial P20 billion in May this year.
In the past, Philhealth had been involved in questionable uses of funds. In 2018, former Negros Oriental Rep. Arnulfo Teves and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez found that PhilHealth interim president Celestina dela Serna spent one year living in a hotel for P3,800 per night (about P1.4 million) instead of renting a condominium unit or an apartment in Metro Manila .
On Aug. 25, 2021, Sen. Richard Gordon presented the Blue Ribbon Committee report containing the findings of the 2019 investigation into the alleged fraud and corruption within the State-run health insurer.
On Aug. 2, 2024, the Sen. Koko Pimentel and a public health advocates group filed certiorari and prohibition with restraining order to stop the transfer of P89.9 billion PhilHealth funds to the national budget.
The Petitioners challenged the constitutionality of DOF Circular No. 003-2024.
Finance Secretary Recto, however, defended the remittance of unused government subsidies to the national treasury. He explained that the Circular merely implemented a Congressional Order under Section XLIII (1)(d) of Republic Act No. 11975, or the General Appropriations Act.
The National Health Insurance Act of 1995 or Republic Act 7875 was signed by President Ramos on Feb. 14, 1995. The law paved the way for the creation of PhilHealth, mandated to provide social health insurance coverage to all Filipinos.
Thus, PhilHealth was created to implement universal health coverage.It is a tax-exempt GOCC attached to the Department of Health with its stated goal to “ensure a sustainable national health insurance program for all.
Stop the transfer of our PhilHealth funds to the national treasury!
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Author’s email: whelmayap@yahoo.com
