Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) Member Management Group Vice President Oscar Abadu Jr. FILE PHOTO / Joseph Vidal / Senate PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — Over 15.2 million Filipinos, or around 14% of the country’s total population, remain unregistered in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
According to PhilHealth Vice President for Member Management Oscar Abadu Jr., a total of 94,932,084 Filipinos are currently registered to their insurance scheme, 52,177,322 of whom are registered members while the remaining 42,754,762 are dependents.
This gives PhilHealth an 86.16% coverage rate as of September 2020.
The Universal Healthcare Law aims to have 100-percent population coverage of PhilHealth in which all funds intended for medical services are pooled into.
Meanwhile, 15,248,125 of the total 110 million population are unregistered to the state insurance firm.
The PhilHealth official said majority of the unregistered members are indigenous people (IPs) and those living in far-flung areas.
“We will heavily need the assistance of the LGUs (local government units) here. it is because the LGUs would know better kung sino yung indigenous people,” Abadu told reporters Wednesday in an online press briefing hosted by the Department of Health.
He added that PhilHealth is in talks with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples to enroll IPs into the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP).
PhilHealth, an attached agency of the DOH, manages the NHIP, which covers 98% of the population or 104.5 million Filipinos and provides health care subsidies to poor families.