PhilHealth urged: Expand benefit package

A lawmaker on Wednesday has called on the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to expand its benefit packages and healthcare coverage.

In a statement, Agri Partylist Representative Wilbert Lee stressed that the agency should widen the public health system.

He added that they do not agree with the transfer of the PhilHealth money to the national treasury as he cited health packages for dialysis and breast cancer, costing P30,000 and P100,000 respectively.

However, another 30 percent across-the-board should be the increase in the PhilHealth packages, excluding the P500,000 coverage for one year.

According to lawmaker, a tablet for cancer, for instance, costs about P5,000 per tablet and it should not only be affordable for the rich patients but even poor patients.

As of this year, PhilHealth has a budget of P700 billion, and instead P90 billion will be transferred to the national treasury.

“MRI is needed to diagnose the disease of a patient such that by the time money is saved the disease is already malignant. There should be an increase in PhilHealth coverage and decrease in contribution of PhilHealth amortization,” Lee said.

He also said that the P90 billion from PhilHealth was not specified to be used for health services.

For his part, labor leader and human rights lawyer Luke Espiritu said that the P90 billion should be specifically devoted to a particular purpose, and realign it for another purpose, and hopefully not for political purposes.

Lee stressed that the state of the public health is known to everybody, why not use the P90 billion for the health benefits of the PhilHealth members.

He also pointed out that such money should be used for widening of the PhilHealth coverage of Filipinos, however, others said that it came from subsidy.

“Once it’s already the money of PhilHealth, it cannot be used for other purposes. PhilHealth money should be used for the widening of PhilHealth coverage and decrease in the monthly amortization of PhilHealth members,” Lee said.