Their acquiescence to the raid on the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) fund should be enough reason for the entire agency’s leadership to be given the boot.

Moreover, their mere declaration of idle funds despite the grossly deficient healthcare services reflects on PhilHealth’s inefficiency.

The Department of Finance (DoF) is in the process of siphoning off the final tranche of P30 billion of the P89.9 billion impounded from PhilHealth.

The amount is being transferred to the National Treasury as part of the excess funds swept up to finance unprogrammed allocations in the national budget. In reality, some P200 billion or so worth of projects were bumped off the budget to make way for the congressional pork barrel during the bicameral conference committee deliberations on the 2024 national budget.

PhilHealth’s leadership should be overhauled for their failure to implement the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law, which led to the agency having excess funds which should have not happened since the majority of Filipinos have yet to enjoy the benefits of the UHC Law, Sen. JV Ejercito said during a forum at the Senate.

A livid Ejercito said the PhilHealth officials should be replaced “for failure to live up to the purpose of the Universal Health Care Law, being the primary agency tasked with its implementation.”

As the principal sponsor of the UHC Law, the legislator said PhilHealth is the biggest obstacle to its implementation.

The UHC is in the fifth year of implementation. It is a 10-year program that Ejercito described as “a work in progress but by now should already be felt by most Filipinos.”

There have been improvements, as from the 70-percent out-of-pocket expense of the public for healthcare before the law was passed, now it is 40 to 42 percent, Ejercito said.

What is saddening, according to Ejercito, is that when a PhilHealth member’s hospital bills balloon, the assistance becomes negligible.

He said there are instances when the amount hits P500,000, but the PhilHealth subsidy is only about P12,000.

“Not until the queues of indigents and those who are not capable of paying for health services disappear can we claim success,” he said.

“We should be targeting zero-balance billing for indigents, senior citizens, persons with disability and other Filipinos who cannot afford hospital attention,” he added.

The legislator said that an ongoing investigation into the reallocation of the PhilHealth funds will seek the views of sectoral groups, primarily those who petitioned the Supreme Court to block the DoF move, to find answers to questions about the capabilities of the health insurance agency.

“PhilHealth is not a private company that has to have savings; it has to use its funds for indigents,” Ejercito said.

Ejercito demanded that PhilHealth officials explain their failure to live “up to expectations” regarding the implementation of the UHC.

How can there be excess funds in PhilHealth when there are many hospitals that have yet to be paid and the majority of Filipinos are afraid of healthcare costs?

Priority should be given to the health needs of Filipinos. The success of the UHC depends on PhilHealth’s implementation of the law, Ejercito stressed.

He pointed out that with the UHC in place, “I am incensed when I see hospital bills in which PhilHealth has a token amount of assistance.”

“We are all in government and the funds given to us should all be used to render basic services,” he pointed out.

Ejercito’s frustration is shared by Filipinos whose officials, in their practice of transactional politics, allow public funds to feed the insatiable hunger of Congress for the pork barrel.