‘90% of Filipinos covered by health insurance’

MANILA, Philippines — Most or 90 percent of Filipinos are now covered by social health insurance, the Department of Health (DOH) reported yesterday.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the DOH through PhilHealth provided health insurance coverage to 91 percent of the country’s total population and paid out a total of P361 million “Z benefit” claims in 2017.

Duque said the Z benefit package covers peritoneal dialysis, coronary artery bypass graft surgery, breast cancer surgery, kidney transplantation and ventricular septal defect surgery.

In 2017, Duque said about 1.33 million poor patients were provided medical assistance amounting to P3.71 billion, while 1.48 million received free medicine for hypertension, diabetes, stroke and other diseases.

Despite recent controversies, Duque said the DOH ended 2017 on a positive note and he gave assurance the department will continue to take the lead in providing vital health programs and health services to the people.

“We will aim once again to regain the trust of our people through integrity and good governance in 2018,” Duque said.

As this developed, organized labor questioned what it called lack of workers’ representation in PhilHealth and other government agencies under the Duterte administration.

Federation of Free Workers (FFW) president Sonny Matula said PhilHealth approved a 25 percent increase in contribution without consulting the labor group as required under the Labor Code.

“The arbitrary increase is a violation of Article 218 of Labor Code which requires workers’ participation in policy and decision making processes, including consultations on matters affecting their rights, benefits and welfare,” Matula said in a statement.

Matula said trade unions were not consulted on the increase while workers also remain unrepresented in the board of PhilHealth and other tripartite bodies.

Matula said labor groups have been requesting the President to review the appointments in tripartite bodies.