LIKE a love song, the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act of 2018 promises to take care of us until we breathe our last, through a complex health-care system and network that would need massive infusion of public funds to sustain.
The law declares as state policy the creation of a health-care model that “provides all Filipinos access to a comprehensive set of quality and cost-effective, promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services without causing financial hardship and prioritizes the needs of the population who cannot afford such services.” Wow. Sarap pakinggan.
PhilHealth (with the Department of Health) plays a critical role in ensuring that the provisions of this law are fulfilled. Unfortunately, PhilHealth as a government-owned and -controlled corporation has so many issues concerning integrity, transparency, and public accountability.
When “ghosts” are able to obtain dialysis treatments, and there are regions where pneumonia cases have reached outbreak proportions based on claims rather than scientific medical data, it is obvious that PhilHealth is sick.
PhilHealth needs to heal itself, before trying to heal an entire nation.
Its Board of Directors failed to resolve cases of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who paid premiums to PhilHealth only to find out during desperate times that their premiums were pilfered and receipts were faked. Why leave the investigation of such cases solely to Philippine Overseas Employment Administration when the syndicate composed of liaison officers of recruitment agencies that may be in cahoots with insiders has yet to fall? Why does PhilHealth continue to hold on to these affidavits for years instead of transmitting them to the POEA?
Prior to the passage of the UHC, the health insurance agency was already in epic-fail mode. What more when hundreds of billions in new funding go through its bureaucratic veins and money-clogged arteries?
The list of appropriations and its sources to fund the law is as follows:
• Total incremental sin tax collections as provided under Republic Act 10351 otherwise known as the “Sin Tax Reform Law”;
• 50 percent of the national government share from the income of the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corp.;
• 40 percent of the Charity Fund, net of Documentary Stamp Tax Payments, and mandatory contributions of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office;
• Premium contributions of members;
• Annual appropriations of the DOH as included in the General Appropriations Act; and,
• National government subsidy to PhilHealth included in the General Appropriations Act.
For the first year of implementation, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said some P254.8 billion has been allotted. In exchange for such hefty sum, Filipinos will gain universal health care coverage—with each citizen having access to a primary health-care provider of his or her choice. The primary health- care provider is the health worker they can go to for medical treatment.
To ensure that you and I will have our own designated health- care provider, the law mandates the establishment of a National Health Workforce Support System. The NHW support system “shall be created to support local public health systems in addressing their human resource needs.”
Even prior to having such a designated health-care provider and yet before the main components of the health-care act are in place, we will already be paying higher premiums to PhilHealth. For our OFWs, this means that every domestic worker deployed abroad would have to pay P6,864 this year and P7,488 next year in annual contributions. The current fixed-rate for PhilHealth premiums across the board for every OFW is at P2,400.
Five years from now, the monthly contribution of an OFW domestic worker to PhilHealth will be P1,040 per month or P12,480 a year. They cannot afford this. No OFW was invited to participate in public hearings on the Universal Health Care Act. This major oversight on the part of our legislators has yet to be explained.
Under the UHC, can an OFW on vacation gets free medical treatment as a mandatory PhilHealth member? Yes, but he or she would be required to pay all missed contributions with interest, compounded monthly —this is the plan under the proposed IRR.
The new health law also does not specify the designation of an OFW representative to PhilHealth’s Board of Directors. Collection without representation renders the entire OFW sector mute and invisible to the eye, especially when high-level critical decisions are made.
We all want universal health care. That is important. But equally important is sustainability, transparency, and foremost of all, integrity. The saddest love songs are meant for the brokenhearted. We don’t want to hear that kind of love song sung by patients who paid a lot more for a multi-billion-peso health care system that could be taken advantaged of by a corrupt, still unaccountable few.
Thus, this writer’s humble plea: PhilHealth, heal thyself. The health-care needs of our children and of generations more to come, are in your shaky hands. Be honest. Can you stem corruption and implement a nationwide health security and insurance program, and serve our people without “ghosts,” fake receipts and overpayments galore? Whatever your answer, know this. We, the people, will be watching. And because the premiums are higher, with promises of a First World health insurance, we won’t be as forgiving.