Philhealth premiums to swell 82% in 5 yrs

By URIEL C. QUILINGUING
Contributing Editor

EVERY Philhealth member, classified as a direct contributor, has to pay 82 percent more from the current monthly premium rate to avail of complete health services package five years from now.

The monthly insurance premium was among the salient points which Philhealth-10 field operations head Mae Dizon discussed in a UHC briefing right after the 1st Philhealth Quiz Bee regional finals at the Mallberry Business Suites in Cagayan de Oro on Tuesday last week.

As stipulated under Republic Act No. 11223 or the Universal Health Care Act of 2019, which took effect Thursday last week, the current premium rate of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. is pegged at 2.75 percent from gross monthly pay. This, however, would increase progressively, every year, until 2024 when the direct contribution of members would be five percent.

As shown in the multi-media presentation, premium rates for Philhealth direct contributing members would be three percent next year, 3.50 percent in 2021, four percent in 2022, and 4.5 percent in 2023.

Dizon said there are only two types of membership under the UHC and these are: direct contributors, those who can pay monthly premiums; and indirect contributors which refer to those whose monthly premiums have to be subsidized by the national government.

Before the UHC implementation, Philhealth has seven categories of members: formal, informal, sponsored, overseas Filipino workers, senior citizens, lifetime, and indigent.

Under the UHC, a direct contributor, whose monthly pay is P20,754 which is equivalent to salary grade 11, the 2.75-percent Philhealth contribution amounts to P570.75 for the current year, but the amount of monthly premium contribution would be P1,037.70 by 2024.

Philhealth area vice president for Mindanao Datu Masiding Alonto Jr. told reporters that the implementation of the UHC will be gradual in the next five years.

“There are 33 sites where the UHC implementation will be piloted and Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental are among them,” said Alonto, who described the two local governments as among the readiest due to existing networks of health care providers.

Dr. Jonathan Ortigoza, Philhealth acting regional vice president for Northern Mindanao, said Philhealth is also cognizant of the existing collaborations between the Department of Health and Cagayan de Oro’s JR Borja Memorial General Hospital as well as the provincial hospitals in Misamis Oriental.    

Ortigoza said health care providers that play crucial roles in the UHC implementation include health facilities, health care professionals, community-based health care organizations, pharmacies, and drug outlets, laboratories, and diagnostic clinics.

As indicated in the briefer, the UHC is intended to protect and promote the right to health of all Filipinos by adopting an integrated and comprehensive approach.

“If in the past we only enrolled 85 percent of the population, this time, under the Universal Health Care, we are looking at 100 percent enrolment,” said the regional field operations chief of Philhealth-10, with the Northern Mindanao’s 2019 more than five million population in mind.