Medical groups to DOF: Stop transfer of PhilHealth funds

File photo of a PhilHealth branch. INQUIRER FILES/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — More than 60 healthcare professional organizations in the country urged the Department of Finance (DOF) to stop another round of impending transfers of billions of pesos in excess funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) back to the national treasury.

In what they called a “White Coat Rally,” the medical professionals gathered on Monday at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila to appeal to Finance Secretary Ralph Recto to cancel the transfer of P10 billion of PhilHealth funds scheduled on Aug. 21 and further transfers in the coming months.

“We urge the [DOF] to be sensitive to public opinion and exercise prudence and caution by not transferring the next tranche of funds and succeeding transfers,” they said in a letter addressed to Recto.

READ: PhilHealth budget under scrutiny

The letter was signed by 65 professional organizations composed of doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, medical technologists, and other healthcare professionals.

Six former Department of Health (DOH) secretaries—Jaime Galvez-Tan, Manuel Dayrit, Francisco Duque III, Esperanza Cabral, Enrique Ona and Paulyn Jean Ubial—signed the letter.

The Philippine Medical Association also supported the call, but could not be a signatory as it is among those who filed a petition before the Supreme Court on Aug. 2 to stop the transfer of the PhilHealth funds to the national treasury.

Renowned epidemiologist Dr. Antonio Dans said the signatories were hoping that Recto and other government officials would be “enlightened from their error.”

“But if not, we will fight to stop the transfer of the third tranche in October and the fourth tranche in November. We will fight for the rights of all Filipinos,” he said.

Petition in the high court

In compliance with a special provision under the 2024 General Appropriations Act, the DOF issued Department Circular No. 003-2024 directing PhilHealth, among other government-owned and -controlled corporations, to remit to the national treasury its unutilized subsidies amounting to P89.9 billion from 2021 to 2023 to fund the government’s unprogrammed appropriations.

PhilHealth already returned P20 billion to the general fund on May 10. Two more transfers are set this year besides the P10 billion on Aug. 21—P30 billion in October and P29.9 billion in November.

The Supreme Court earlier ordered the DOF, House of Representatives, Senate, PhilHealth and Office of the Executive Secretary to comment on the petition questioning the constitutionality of the transfer.

The petitioners said PhilHealth funds should be protected, given the ever-increasing cost of health care in the country, with 44 percent of health expenditures shouldered out of pocket by Filipino households.

DOH funds

“We are daily witnesses to patients who are unable to get the care they desperately need due to inefficiencies within our social health insurance system. We strongly believe that the solution to PhilHealth’s inability to use its funds is not to strip Filipinos of healthcare funding but to implement immediate and substantial PhilHealth reforms such as increasing the scope and coverage,” they said.

In defending its action, the DOF said the P20 billion remitted by PhilHealth in May was used to fund the P27.4 billion to pay the remaining health emergency allowance (HEA) for healthcare workers who served during the pandemic. This was the same amount the DOH was supposed to request for its 2025 budget.

But for Dans, the national government should have used the DOH funds, and not that of PhilHealth, to settle its dues to health workers.

“We are the ones who will benefit from this HEA, and we are also the ones who are saying that PhilHealth’s fund should not have been used. PhilHealth funds are not for salaries or building facilities, but for health care. It is for a patient who needs to seek consultation, get medicine, and pay for laboratory tests to get better,” he said.