Escudero: PhilHeath zero subsidy is ‘because of their own failure’

Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero (Photo from Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)

Senate President Francis Escudero said the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) would not receive any subsidy in the 2025 General Appropriations Act due to its inability to fulfill its mission.

Fifty percent of tobacco excise tax collections are earmarked for PhilHealth and health facilities enhancements. These are meant to fund full coverage of Filipinos under the National Insurance Program.

Tobacco excise tax collections are at their highest in 2021 at P176 billion. It has seen a decline since then at P160 billion in 2022 and P135 billion in 2023.

Filipinos, however, are still obliged to pay high insurance premiums while lacking full coverage, putting into question the agency’s absorptive capacity for more funds from tobacco excise collections.

Escudero said PhilHeath not receiving a subsidy is “because of their own failure.”

“This should serve as a wake-up call for them. Doing their job is not a slap on their faces. We will not reward their failure by giving them a budget that won’t be used,” he added. “What you call having a reserve of P600 billion is not performing its job of providing health benefits to our countrymen.”

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said the current PhilHealth management should be changed.

“Let me be clear. The board has been giving instructions to management to fix its act. The management has to fix its act. I think they have the money. So clearly, management is failing. So, I want to ask you. Do you believe the management of PhilHealth should be changed? I think so,” Herbosa said in a national TV interview.

Herbosa, who chairs the PhilHealth board, also confirmed that the agency’s utilization rate for its 2024 budget is only 61 percent, significantly below government standards.

He expressed concern over the PhilHealth management’s failure to fully utilize the available funds and questioned their continued leadership.

Herbosa also alluded to rumors of a “field health mafia” within PhilHealth, suggesting potential corruption and inefficiency.

He underscored the need for improved efficiency and fiscal discipline to ensure that funds are used to benefit members, not hoarded.

Herbosa pointed out that the bigger issue with PhilHealth involves the rules on how much it should save.

“I think PhilHealth acts like other corporations that they feel that they should spend less, right? Private corporations want to spend less, but PhilHealth should not be that way. From day one, I said, PhilHealth should have rules, let’s say, it should only have 20 percent savings. Everything else should be spent,” he said.

“We really need to fix the efficiency of PhilHealth. And this fiscal discipline, I think, is part of an armamentarium, where you can fix management and say, no, the legislator knows that what you’re supposed to do is to pay the health benefit your members. And if you’re not doing that and putting the money in the back instead, why should we give you and reward you for failing?” he asked.

“The people that’s been there is management. They’ve been there for years. So management needs to straighten this up, follow the directives and the strategies directed by the board,” said Herbosa. “So it’s about time to use that excess money, which government also gave, to use now for continuing the implementation of Universal Health Care and for indirect members,” he added.

Dr. Willie Ong, a renowned cardiologist and health advocate, echoed these sentiments, criticizing PhilHealth’s “hoarding” mentality.

Ong said the agency’s primary goal should be to utilize its funds to provide essential healthcare services like chemotherapy for cancer patients and advanced medical procedures.

“For starters, we want chemotherapy for cancer patients ASAP. At least P1 million for each patient from PhilHealth. We want free angiogram, angioplasty, heart bypass, CT scan, MRI, pet scans,” said Ong, who is also a cancer patient.

“The goal of PhilHealth is to help its poor members, not to hoard money. PhilHealth is not a bank,” Ong said on his social media account.

Ong also said that under the Universal Health Care Law, PhilHealth should use the money and maintain only a two-year buffer amounting to P150 billion, and not P500 billion which is in the management’s hands right now.

Ong called for PhilHealth accountability and urged the agency to adhere to the Universal Health Care Law.

“Lives were lost because of the ‘ipon ng ipon’ mentality on reserve funds. Who will be held responsible,” he said.