State health insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) stands ready to double its P30-billion war chest in the fight against Covid-19 “if necessary.”
This, as PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Morales said on Tuesday that its implementation of the suspension of increased premium rates for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and the moratorium on the contributions of directly paying members will not significantly affect its reserves in the near term.
“No, it will not [be affected by the suspension] because we prepared a P30-billion budget for the Covid-19 pandemic and that has already been set aside and this will be taken from our reserves, which will not be so much affected by the shortfall in the short term from the missed collections from the OFWs and other directly paying members,” Morales said in an interview on CNN Philippines’s The Source.
On Monday, President Duterte ordered PhilHealth to defer the implementation of its scheduled premium increase for OFWs, amid intense public outcry against the policy.
PhilHealth drew the ire of migrant advocates, as well as other concerned groups, after it issued PhilHealth Circular 2020-0014 on April 2, which required OFWs, who earn between P10,000 and P60,000, to pay premiums worth 3 percent of their monthly salaries. This represented a .25-percent hike in their payments.
Last month, PhilHealth said it is extending the deadline on the payment of contributions for all direct contributors for February to April 2020. The payment of premiums for these applicable months shall be extended until May 31, 2020, without interest for all direct contributors.
Despite the increasing number of Covid-19 patients in the country, the PhilHealth chief said their current figures indicate that the P30 billion that they have allotted for hospitals and other health-care institutions as part of their efforts against Covid-19 is enough.
Should this be “inadequate,” the PhilHealth assured the public that it has funds that it can utilized to augment its coffers.
“Well so far our figures indicate that we are still within the ballpark but it remains to be seen how long and how bad this Covid-19 pandemic will be in the Philippines but we are ready to augment this P30 billion should this be inadequate,” Morales said.
“PhilHealth has funds but it is not unlimited so we have to be very careful with our expenditures,” he added.
Sought to clarify how much funds are available should PhilHealth push through with the augmentation, Morales said: “Right now, our current accounts which can be converted into cash is also equivalent to about P30 billion so we are ready, if required, if needed, to double the Covid-19 war chest if necessary.”
In a separate interview in GMA’s Unang Hirit, Morales also belied University of Santo Tomas (UST) Hospital’s claim that PhilHealth owes them more than P180 million in receivables.
“Ang masasabi ko walang katotohanan yun kasi ang binayad namin sa UST Hospital since 2015 ay umaabot na ng P2.1 billion e,” he said.
Last year, Morales argued that PhilHealth paid more than P300 million to the UST Hospital.
For this year, he said, they also gave P85 million to UST Hospital for Covid-19 response, which, he said, is on top of the regular benefit reimbursement.
“So di ko alam kung saan nanggagaling tong sinasabi na P180 million na sinasabi ng UST Hospital,” he added.
Morales also said PhilHealth also sent their people to coordinate with UST Hospital to reconcile the matter.
UST Hospital said in an earlier statement that reimbursement is delayed by an average of five to six months.
The hospital also said it has also retrenched “non-crucial” workers to cut its financial losses in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis.