MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday called for the suspension of the increase in premium payments to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), as provided in the implementing rules and regulations of Universal Health Care (UHC) law.
Duque, who sits as chairman of the PhilHealth board in a concurrent capacity, said the Department of Health will recommend the suspension of the new rate increases in premium payments to alleviate the economic impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis on OFWs and their families.
“I call for the suspension of Section 10.2.C of the IRR of the UHC Law in light of COVID-19 and its economic impact on OFWs,” Duque said in a Twitter post.
I call for the suspension of Section 10.2.C of the IRR of the UHC Law in light of COVID-19 and its economic impact on OFWs. We will recommend this to Philhealth for their action. Meanwhile, we will reach out again to our stakeholders on this. pic.twitter.com/VudhaLlPCI
— Francisco T. Duque III (@SecDuque) May 4, 2020
Duque further said he will reach out to stakeholders.
In a recently released circular, PhilHealth mandated to increase the mandatory contribution of OFWs whose monthly income ranged from P10,000 to P60,000 to 3% starting this year. This is up from 2.75% in 2019.
An online petition on Change.org against the PhilHealth move has so far gained close to 300,000 signatures.