Unless stopped by Palace, PhilHealth premium hike proceeds

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has started implementing the increase in premium contributions this month, in the absence of an order from Malacañang stopping the hike.

“We have not received any message or directive from Malacañang so we are just following the law. We already started implementing the increase,” PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said at a press briefing.

“If ever there is a directive or instruction from Malacañang, we will comply, but as of today, there is none,” he added.

But he warned about the consequences of suspending the increase.

“If this will be suspended by the President, that would mean minus P17 billion from PhilHealth’s fund for the year. With our current cash position and with the help we’re getting from other agencies, I think that things will still push through as expected and I don’t think it will affect us. We’ll be fine,” Ledesma said.

He said the hike in premium contributions this year will be the last.

“I’m taking this from the premium contribution, Section 10 of Republic Act 11223 – just for the information of all of you, this increase of five percent in premium rate for this year will be the last increase,” Ledesma said.

“So in 2025 onwards, there will be no more increase,” Ledesma added.

The increase took effect on the first day of the year. The five percent increase applies to members earning between P10,000 and P100,000.

PhilHealth has also advised its members to ensure that their contributions are updated for their membership to remain active and for them to enjoy continued health care benefits.

As provided for under the Universal Health Care (UHC) law, premium contribution rose to three percent in 2020, 3.5 percent in 2021, four percent in 2022 and 4.5 percent last year.

In 2021, however, PhilHealth suspended the rate hike of three percent to 3.5 percent amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

PhilHealth said the increase for this year would mean P500 contribution from those earning P10,000 a month and P5,000 from those with monthly income of P100,000 or more.

Meanwhile, Ledesma also said PhilHealth has already paid a total of P46.5 billion in arrears to both public and private hospitals.

“Of the P46.5 billion we paid out starting August (last year) up to now, payment made to private health facilities amounted to P26.2 billion. That translates to 56 percent,” Ledesma said.

As to government hospitals, the PhilHealth chief said P20.3 billion has already been paid. “This translates to roughly 44 percent,” he added.

“From August, September, October, November, December – five months, the total payment was P45 billion,” he pointed out.

It was October last year when PhilHealth revealed having settled a total of P20.651 billion of its outstanding debt to hospitals amounting to P27 billion.

Despite the cybersecurity incident in September, Ledesma said they were able to bounce back and manage to process payables.

“We appeal to our partner health facilities to submit good claims and comply with the policies to avoid return or denied claims for we are bound by auditing rules and regulations of the government,” Ledesma maintained.