House defers DoH budget approval

The House of Representatives has deferred approval of the 2025 budget of the Department of Health (DoH) due to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation’s (PhilHealth) alleged failure to expand its health coverage despite having over P500 billion in available funds.

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 PhilHealth’s inability to increase the coverage of expensive medical procedures such as heart bypass, chemotherapy and diagnostic tests, among others.

PhilHealth is an attached agency of the DoH.

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

“The DoH’s inaction is 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 said.

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 wants the coverage expansion enforced before the plenary deliberations and warned the DoH’s budget would be deferred should it fail to do so.

Earlier, the Department of Finance revealed that PhilHealth could finish the year with approximately P550 billion in unspent funds.