Rise in PhilHealth, SSS premiums hit

MANILA, Philippines — Recruiters and migrants’ rights advocates on Monday urged the government to suspend the planned increase in the premiums of the Social Security System (SSS) and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), warning that this may push workers to leave the country through the backdoor.

According to the Philippine Association of Service Exporters Inc. (Pasei), if the increases push through, migrants will likely leave as undocumented workers to avoid paying a number of fees.

“The tendency of our workers — because of the high fees that they are made to pay — they would rather go to the illegal recruiters. They don’t have to pay anything; there’s no hassle in leaving. But that’s very dangerous because they are undocumented,” Pasei acting president Raquel Espina-Bracero said at a news forum in Manila.

Under the implementation rules of Republic Act No. 11199, or the Social Security Act, which takes effect this week, new hires must pay the SSS premium of P960 before they can leave the country.

Returning migrants, on the other hand, are required to pay the three-month premium worth P2,880.

The rules also require that the payment be tied to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s (POEA) grant to workers of an overseas employment certificate or exit clearance.

Currently, a migrant worker can be issued an OEC even if he has yet to pay his SSS and PhilHealth premiums.

Migrants’ rights advocacy group Blas F. Ople Policy Center said that based on the draft shown to it by PhilHealth, the company is set to increase from P2,400 to P6,864 the annual premium contribution it asks from migrant workers.

The minimum annual contribution will go up to as high as P12,480 in 2024.

Burden to workers

The center’s head, former Labor Undersecretary Susan Ople, said that while the group recognizes the importance of social protection, this shouldn’t come as a burden to workers.

“The salaries of our domestic workers abroad have been stagnant for more than a decade. Asking them to pay that much considering that they will be away from the country for at least two years would cause undue burden given their vulnerable status and work conditions,” Ople said.

As it stands, Ople said that the deployment of migrants has steadily dropped since 2016.

According to POEA data, the deployment of new hires has slowed down from 582,816 in 2016 to 420,639 last year.

The number of rehired workers has also slumped from more than a million in 2016 to just a little more than 600,000 last year.

Ople noted, however, that despite the decline, remittances have remained steady.

PH no longer competitive

“What does this mean? Two things: there are more workers leaving through the backdoor, and we are no longer as competitive compared to other [labor-exporting] countries [because] it is getting more expensive to hire Filipinos,” she said.

The Joint Ship Manning Group noted that the hikes may also put Filipino seafarers at a disadvantage.

For the Japanese shipping industry alone, the hikes are estimated to cost employers $215,005 (P11.2 million) this year. By 2025, the cost is expected to rise to more than $25 million (P1.3 billion).

Given the controversies surrounding the SSS and PhilHealth on how they manage their finances, Bracero said that it is Pasei’s impression that migrants are being used to plug funding gaps at these agencies.

“It is the stakeholders’ feeling that what is happening is that [migrant workers] are becoming scapegoats so that they could plug the gaps in their funding,” she said.