DAVAO CITY, Philippines — President Duterte last night deferred the increase in monthly premium payments of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) members, which was supposed to start on Jan. 1.
“We will look for other sources of money,” the President said during the weekly meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases here yesterday.
Duterte said Filipinos are grappling with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and an increase in PhilHealth premiums would be an added burden.
Earlier, PhilHealth said those who have a monthly basic salary of P10,000 and below would have a fixed contribution of P350 a month, while those earning P70,000 and higher a month would pay a fixed rate of P2,450 monthly.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III yesterday said the chamber is willing to fast-track a bill deferring the hike in PhilHealth premium payments.
The President is willing to sign into law such a measure, Sen. Bong Go said.
“Based on our conversation with President Duterte, he is amenable to defer the increase in the PhilHealth contribution rate for 2021 while we’re still facing a pandemic,” Go said in a statement.
In a related development, Sen. Joel Villanueva has filed Senate Bill 1965 seeking to defer the scheduled increase of contributions of Social Security System (SSS) members this year.
“Given the current employment situation of the country as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to ensure that workers and companies are able to fully recover and have enough resources to do so,” Villanueva said in his bill.
“This bill seeks to achieve this by providing a reprieve to our battle-weary workers and employers through the suspension of the mandated increase in social security contribution rate in the event of a pandemic,” he said.
Go said Duterte was aware that Congress must first pass a bill suspending the contributions hike and possibly a measure increasing funding for PhilHealth so that services will not be affected by the postponement.
Go said he was able to speak with Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado who agreed with the deferment but is still studying how to financially sustain the operations of PhilHealth.
He said he is studying various options, including introducing a bill that will address the specific provision in the Universal Health Care law mandating the increase. – Alexis Romero, Michelle Zoleta