MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the deferment of the supposed increase of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s (PhilHealth) contribution rate for its members this year.
In his address to the public on Monday evening, President Duterte tasked PhilHealth chief Dante Gierran to suspend the monthly premium hike amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“At this time of our life, may I just suggest to PhilHealth chairman at ‘yung lahat na, ‘wag muna ngayon. No increase in contributions,” Duterte said.
“I will look for the money to fill it up. Maghanap tayo ng pera. Anyway, that is the job of the government – to make it easy for everybody at this time of our lives,” he added.
Under the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act, the state insurer’s monthly rates will rise to 3.5 percent in January 2021 from three percent last year, raising minimum contributions to P350 from the current P300.
The law also adjusts the income ceiling to P70,000 from P60,000, increasing monthly contributions to P2,450 from P1,800.
Responding to Duterte’s call, at least 30 lawmakers across party-lists are jointly filing a House resolution calling for the deferment of the increase in PhilHealth contribution rate until 2022.
Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor said the proposal to defer the PhilHealth contribution rate adjustment came up after a discussion among lawmakers on Monday.
“After our discussion, nag-post ako sa mga thread naming members of Congress. Immediately may mga 30 authors na coming from different political parties, different political influences, na nagsasama-sama kami in filing a joint resolution to defer it to 2022,” he said.
The contribution hike was announced after a multi-billion-peso corruption controversy rocked the state health insurer, leading to the resignation and the filing of charges against several of its top executives./PN
