By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
For a state-run firm with a mandate of saving lives in hospitals, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is a multi-billion-peso Scrooge all days of the year, including Christmas.
That can be the only explanation for why it wrests P920 billion in unspent funds when sick and poor Filipinos continue to die of illness far from the operating table or a hospital bed.
For better understanding, it appears that PhilHealth hoards a wealth of P920 billion across its reserves, surplus, and investments — funds that could spell the difference between life and death for many Filipinos it has deprived of bigger benefits in the direst of medical emergencies.
I cannot fathom how PhilHealth could scrimp on benefits and skimp on the very care it was created to provide.
Even President Bongbong Marcos has practically validated that PhilHealth’s problem lies not in the lack of funds but in its [mis]management. He acknowledged that the agency’s system has been “clogged” by its limited processing capacity.
Wow! Two years as Chief Executive and with the power of appointing the best and the brightest to head the agencies in his administration, and yet he seemed to have resigned to a lousy state of affairs in healthcare.
Merely explaining that the sheer number of claims and new benefit packages introduced has cramped the system and delayed payouts does not solve the problem. It rather exposes the defeatist stance of the most powerful man in government who has let two years pass watching patients languish because PhilHealth funds sit idly in bank accounts.
Now, Congress is putting its foot down, depriving the PhilHealth of a P74-billion government subsidy for 2025, citing its enormous reserves and surplus.
Finance Secretary Ralph Recto tried to soften the blow, reassuring the public that PhilHealth has ample resources to increase its benefit packages by 50% in 2025. But here’s the hard truth: he’s also the lead actor in tapping into the funds of PhilHealth – not for the sick, but to bridge the government’s budget deficit. I’m not a fan of that.
To a certain extent, as Sen. Grace Poe had pointed out during recent deliberations, the decision of the bicameral conference committee to set a zero budget for subsidy is punishment for PhilHealth’s incompetence in a right-sized response to the painful cries of sick Filipinos.
So, while PhilHealth officials beat their chests about financial stability and growing investment portfolios, the reality on the ground tells a grim tale. Families line up for hours, endure bureaucracy, and are forced to settle for second-rate care — or worse, forgo treatment entirely — because PhilHealth refuses to extend adequate coverage.
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