QC seeks debt for insurance coverage deal with PhilHealth

MANILA, Philippines–The Quezon City government is in talks with the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to convert its contractor’s tax estimated at P93 million into health insurance or housing projects.

Mayor Herbert Bautista said he floated the idea during a meeting with PhilHealth president Alexander Padilla, citing a previous debt-for-housing agreement with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

“PhilHealth wants to put up a building in the medical zone of Quezon City. They wanted to waive the tax of the building contractor. But I said maybe we could agree on a different mode of payment,” Bautista told the Inquirer.

“Since it’s PhilHealth, maybe they could convert the amount [into] health cards to increase coverage in the city,” he said.–Erika Sauler