Inquirer file photo
MANILA, Philippines — Senators are inclined not to grant the additional subsidy requested by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) after it declared having excess funds, Sen. JV Ejercito said on Sunday.
“That’s the plan of the senators—not to give the subsidy. Because [the] last time they had a subsidy, they declared it as savings. I’d rather that they ask for [a] subsidy because the funding was exhausted because it was used for the beneficiaries,” he said in a radio interview on Sunday.
“It’s okay if they ask for [a] subsidy because they ran out of funds doing what they should have been doing. But now they’re declaring they have savings, then they were asking for another subsidy. It’s like we’re fooling around,” he added.
READ: SC issues TRO vs transfer of PhilHealth funds to National Treasury
Ejercito’s remarks confirmed Senate President Francis Escudero’s earlier pronouncement that the upper chamber would most likely not give the additional subsidy requested by the state health insurer.
For 2025, PhilHealth is seeking more than P70 billion.
Ejercito, the author of the Universal Health Care Act (Republic Act No. 11223), said, “It is unacceptable that PhilHealth has this huge unused funds while many of our fellow Filipinos continue to suffer because of their medical and hospital bills.”
“I think they want to rub elbows with the banker. They think they’re a private corporation. They’re trying to impress economic managers that they have reserved funds. It shouldn’t be like that. Healthcare funds must be used directly for the benefit of PhilHealth members, which include essentially every Filipino,” he said.
The senator also reiterated his call for the replacement of PhilHealth’s leadership for failing to “live up” to the purpose of RA 11223.
He said he would scrutinize the agency’s budget. “I will ask that the rules be suspended so we can directly talk to PhilHealth officials,” Ejercito said.