Palace rejects claims of PhilHealth’s collapse, says its survival not solely reliant on premiums
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Tuesday rejected claims that the Philippine Health Insurance Corp (PhilHealth) may collapse by 2022 due to the continuing onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health sector, saying the survival of the state health insurance firm does not solely rely on its collections.
According to Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, the government may provide funds to PhilHealth once its reserve funds were depleted.
“As (one of the) author of the Universal Healthcare Law, we have never, even for one minute, considered that the survival of PhilHealth will be solely by reason of premiums,” Roque said in a Palace press briefing.
“Alam po namin hindi makakamit ang libreng gamot at libreng pagamot kung premiums lang ang panggagalingan ng gagastusin ng Philhealth.”
“Kung maubos po ang pera ng Philhealth, gobyerno ang magbibigay ng pondo kaya nga po ang tawag diyan Universal Health Care, hindi medical insurance.”
During a Senate hearing on the alleged irregularities in the state insurance firm, PhilHealth’s acting Senior Vice President Nerissa Santiago revealed that the firm’s actuarial life is down to one year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She noted that this is due to “decreased collections” and an “expected increase in benefit payouts” caused by the health crisis.
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