MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker has proposed that memberships in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) should be made individually.
According to Iloilo First District Representative Janette Garin, as soon as children are born, they should be enrolled in PhilHealth, citing present moves to increase the PhilHealth premium rate.
“We should have individual membership, hindi siya per family… ‘Yung isang bata kunyari anak ko by virtue of being dependent, pagdating niya ng 18 years old hindi na siya miyembro. ‘Pag nagkaanak ‘yan at nanganak siya, hindi siya miyembro ng PhilHealth, at ‘yung anak naman niya, hindi rin ma-cocover kapag nagkasakit,” Garin said on Thursday.
(We should have individual membership, not per family. For example, my child, by virtue of being dependent, when he or she reaches 18 years old, he or she is no longer a member. If he or she has a child, he or she is no longer a member, and the child will no longer be covered if he or she gets sick.)
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The representative also said that Filipinos should get an automatic membership once they are born, which will be removed upon their death.
“Dapat ‘yan talaga individual membership, pagkapanganak miyembro, kapag namatay tanggal sa lista,” Garin added.
(Individual memberships should be implemented once a child is born, and when a person dies, he or she is removed from the list.)
Garin added that PhilHealth should improve its services as health is the center of all daily life.
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“Lahat ng ginagawa natin sa pang araw-araw, edukasyon, trabaho at agrikultura, all of these vacuum to health. Health is the core of our economy and existence. Kaya dapat umayos ang PhilHealth,” Garin said.
(All of what we do daily – education, work, and agriculture – vacuum to health. Health is the core of our economy and existence. So PhilHealth should fix itself.)