The House of Representatives has deferred the approval of the 2025 budget of the Department of Health (DoH) following the supposed non-compliance of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to expand its health coverage despite massive fund availability amounting to more than P500 billion. 

The DoH's P297.6 billion proposed allocation for 2025—a 3.5 percent reduction from this year's budget of P308.3 billion—failed to hurdle the House plenary after Agri Partylist Rep. Wilbert Lee moved to suspend the deliberation due to PhillHealth's inability to increase the coverage of expensive medical procedures such as bypass, chemotherapy, and diagnostic tests, among others.

PhilHealth is an attached agency to the DoH. 

Lee asserted that the DoH benefits committee remains unresponsive to the needs of PhilHealth members and beneficiaries, notwithstanding the staggering funds.

"The DoH's inactions are really disappointing.  Are the officials of this department turning a deaf ear, or is it numb to the grievances of Filipinos when it comes to inadequate health services?" Lee lamented.

The state-run insurer implemented a 30-percent increase in its benefits package in February and recently committed to increasing it by at least 50 percent before the end of the year.

Citing the idle funds in PhilHealth, Lee wanted the coverage expansion to be enforced before plenary deliberations and has warned to defer DoH's budget should they fail to do so.

Earlier, the Department of Finance (DoF) disclosed that PhilHealth could end the year with roughly P550 billion in unspent funds.

During the previous budget hearing, PhilHealth President Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. admitted that PhilHealth's benefits program has been outdated, but they have been "very aggressive" in increasing almost all packages.

Lee, however, countered that a "radical overhaul" is needed and not merely "incremental change" in health financing. 

"Since last year when we saw the billions of available funds of PhilHealth, we have insisted that apart from paying off the hospital debt, it will use the funds to expand health benefits," he said. 

"Until now, the services it provides to care for Filipinos are still insufficient. It is a great sin to the people to standby or transfer funds for health to another program that no one will die if not done."

The transfer of PhilHealth's nearly P90 billion in unused funds to the national treasury met strong opposition from health advocates and other groups, who deemed the move not only unconstitutional but, importantly, deprive the Filipino people of access to quality and affordable health care.

A temporary restraining order was filed before the Supreme Court against DoF Circular No. 003.2024, which ordered  the diversion of the PhilHealth funds to fund "unprogrammed appropriations."

Finance Secretary Ralph Recto previously said that PhilHealth's programs will not be affected by such a transfer since the state insurer still has over P500 billion remaining in its benefit chest.

Meanwhile, there is no final schedule yet for the resumption of DoH's budget deliberations but the House is scheduled to wrap up plenary debates on the proposed P6.352 trillion national budget this week.