Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito during the public hearing in he Senate. FILE PHOTO / Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. JV Ejercito wants the head of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) replaced for supposedly failing to “live up” to the purpose of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law.
Ejercito, who is the principal sponsor of the UHC Law, made the remark in a text message sent to reporters on Wednesday.
“Dapat palitan na ang head ng PhilHealth for failure to live up to [the] purpose of the UHC Law being the primary agency tasked with its implementation,” he said.
(PhilHealth’s head needs to be replaced for failure to live up to the purpose of the UHC Law being the primary agency tasked with its implementation.)
Prior to issuing this remark, Ejercito faced the media in a Kapihan sa Senado forum, where he disclosed his stance on the suspension of deliberations of the Department of Health’s (DOH) budget.
To recall, Sen. Bong Go on Tuesday moved to suspend talks on the DOH’s budget until the agency, together with PhilHealth, commits to expand medical benefits given to Filipinos.
While the DOH’s budget is really close to his heart, Ejercito said he was okay with Go’s decision.
“This is really close to my heart, the budget of DOH, because as a former chair of the committee on health and also the principal sponsor of the UHC Law, very crucial of course, ang budget ng DOH and of course ‘yung PhilHealth lalo na,” said Ejercito.
“I think PhilHealth has the biggest problem, because UHC has already been passed and we are entering the fifth year of its implementation. It was signed in 2019, it is a 10-year program and by now it should be felt by most Filipinos,” Ejercito said in a mix of English and Filipino.
According to Ejercito, there had been an improvement in terms of removing the burden from out-of-pocket expenses, but he emphasized that there is still a long way to go.
“What we want is to target the indigents, senior citizens, indirect contributors, PWDs — our target is to make them have zero hospital billings, considering that they don’t have the capacity to pay. Also, if we can really lower the out-of-pocket expense. This is really sad,” Ejercito added.
“For example, there is a hospital bill — let’s say it reached P500,000 because the illness is complicated, but PhilHealth would only cover P12,000,” he said.
He then proceeded to question why PhilHealth only shoulders a small portion of a patient’s hospital bill, when the UHC Law clearly indicates a specific amount for certain illnesses.
“There are still many hospitals that need to be paid. There are many patients who are having a hard time with their billing and yet PhilHealth only shoulders a small amount. So PhilHealth has a lot of answering to do, good thing it’s suspended so I will join the next hearing. I will make them answer, they are at fault here,” Ejercito said.