MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker on Tuesday grilled Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) officials over plans of the social insurance corporation to address the declining number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) actively paying their contributions.
During the joint hybrid hearing of the House committee on public accounts and the committee on good government and public accountability, Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo asked PhilHealth officials how many OFWs are members of the social insurance corporation.
PhilHealth Overseas Filipino Program senior manager Chona Yap said there are currently around 320,000 OFW PhilHealth members who are actively paying their contributions.
However, Yap said that their database shows there are more than 3 million OFW PhilHealth members.
“Before 2015, mandatory na requirement ang pagbabayad ng PhilHealth premium bago makakuha ng overseas employment certificate (OEC),” Yap explained.
“So starting 2015 onwards hanggang ngayon, pakonti ng pakonti na and nagbabayad ng PhilHealth premium dahil hindi niya na nga requirement ang pagbabayad ng PhilHealth premium bago makakuha ng OEC sa POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Agency),” she added.
Citing reports in 2019, Quimbo pointed out that PhilHealth was only able to collect P1.02 billion from OFWs—lower than the P1.7 billion claims from its OFW members.
“Ngayon kung ang kaso na nagkasakit ang isang miyembro, hindi nakapagbayad pa ng premium pero pagdating sa ospital, hindi siya pwedeng tanggihan. Nasa burden ng PhilHealth na kolektahin yan,” Quimbo said.
“Klaro na dahil voluntary na lang ang payment ng PhilHealth, ngayon ay mas mabigat na ang responsibilidad ng PhilHealth sa pagkolekta ng premiums,” the lawmaker added.
Quimbo was referring to President Rodrigo Duterte’s earlier order for PhilHealth to make the payment of premiums of OFWs voluntary to cushion the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
As Quimbo continued her line of questioning, the lawmaker then turned to ask PhilHealth’s system in place.
“Ano ba ang sistema niyo? Hindi ba kayo pine-pressure ng CEO ninyo, ng opisina niyo particularly kasi ang baba ng collection rate niyo,” Quimbo asked.
Yap explained that they have been coordinating with the POEA to become more efficient with their collection efforts, adding that they also wish to deploy representatives to countries such as Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“So ang tinatarget namin without the requirement ng OEC is to maintain at the very least yung present collection and then target for more. Without also an officer abroad, nahihirapan talaga kami. Hirap na hirap kami,” Yap said.
“Ang Pag-ibig at SSS, meron silang representatives abroad, in, I think, 28 countries. At ang Pag-ibig ay mandatory sila before deployment na nakakabit sa OEC. Yan lang ang in-entertain ng POEA, yung Pag-ibig,” she added.