PhilHealth’s ‘unutilized subsidies’ scrutinized

Senate Committee on Finance chairperson Senator Grace Poe has clarified the recent controversy surrounding the transfer of PhilHealth’s unutilized subsidies to the National Treasury.

During the Senate briefing on the proposed 2025 National Expenditure Program, Poe highlighted that despite having available funds, the previous administration chose to take out loans.

“Because what happened in the past, we had money but we borrowed and went into debt. Pretend I have a budget at home. I have P10,000 in the bank. Now, I have to pay my employees P3,000. So, instead of taking it from the bank -- I had money -- I borrowed,” Poe said.

“So now that there is something else to spend, I have to pay, I will use the money stored there first because that is where it really should have gone. So it's just returned to the fund where it really should be,” she added.

This comes after a petition by the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) and other petitioners for the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order to halt the transfer of funds from PhilHealth to the National Treasury.

Finance Secretary Ralph Recto also addressed the issue, stating that PhilHealth was not responsible for the emergency allowances for frontline workers, as this responsibility was taken on by the government and as a result, the reserve funds were not used.

To recall, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman reported that out of the P89.9 billion in unutilized subsidies from PhilHealth, P27.5 billion has been released to settle overdue claims for over five million Covid-19 health workers.