DBM betrays UHC intent

After surrendering more than P200 billion in the 2024 budget to pork barrel, through insertions, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman is now under fire from the medical sector for compromising the public healthcare system.

The controversy again had its roots in the bicameral conference committee that came out with the final version of the General Appropriations Act (GAA), in which budget watchdogs said the pork insertions happened.

Universal Health Care (UHC) advocate and head of the Medical Action Group, Dr. Juan A. Perez III, said 30 million of 50 million indirect members and dependents have no Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) coverage because of the 2024 GAA which was reviewed and approved by DBM before the President signed it in December.

The tandem of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto and Pangandaman is now siphoning off P89.9 billion of excess funds from PhilHealth to fund unprogrammed items in the budget, which were items bumped off to make way for the pork barrel of members of Congress.

Perez said that in the 2024 National Expenditure Program that was submitted to Congress, PhilHealth targeted 21 million indirect members, who can share the healthcare benefit with family members.

The bicameral conference committee, which is composed of senators and House members, is derisively termed the third chamber of the legislature.

The bicam transferred P40 billion from PhilHealth to the Department of Health’s Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program which resulted in the reduction of indirect members’ coverage by half.

Indirect PhilHealth members are Filipinos who lack the means to pay regular contributions such as indigents identified by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, senior citizens, and persons with disability.

DBM could have corrected the reduction of PHIC membership in the budget deliberations last year, Perez said.

Pangandaman flatly denied the allegations branding them as false while insisting that the role of DBM is to “faithfully [implement] the national budget.”

Most of the so-called excess funds were tier 1 items that should have remained in PhilHealth “since it is covered by the Universal Health Care Act, the 4Ps institutionalization law and laws on senior citizens.”

“All of these were probably not brought up by DBM during the bicam and the President was not properly advised by that agency,” according to Perez.

“DBM cannot deny its role in allowing the reduction of the budget for indirect members, particularly in the final stages of the budget process,” Perez asserted.

DBM also recommended a premium of P3,000 for the National Household Targeting System for poverty reduction and P5,000 for senior citizens in the 2025 national budget, which Perez said are below the P6,000 annual premium to retain PhilHealth membership.

In effect, PhilHealth coverage will be reduced to only six months for 4Ps beneficiaries and 10 months for senior citizens.

Instead of promoting the full implementation of the UHC, the DBM is now being accused of reducing support to the social health insurance program, “which started with the transfer of P89.9 billion from the funds intended for indirect contributors.”

It all boils down to the DBM allowing pork-hungry members of Congress to have their pet projects get priority in the budget over life-saving services for the poor.