PhilHealth fund woes due to corruption, says Roque

ASIDE from declining revenue, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp (PhilHealth) is likewise losing money due to corruption, and this must stop, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Philhealth president Ricardo Morales asked for a delay in the implementation of the Universal Health Care law because of the state health insurer’s declining revenue amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers bucked Morales’ proposal on Wednesday, saying the pandemic should actually be a reason to pursue the implementation of the health care law.

Secretary of Finance Carlos G Dominguez III said the government’s economic team was looking for money to implement the law.

“The government is committed to [the Universal Health Care law], particularly to ensure the access of our most vulnerable groups to much-needed health care, especially during this difficult time,” said Dominguez.

Speaking in a radio interview, Roque said he was planning to expose more irregularities in PhilHealth, which, according to him, was losing money due to these irregularities.

He said PhilHealth should not blame its lack of funds on President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to make the contributions of overseas Filipino workers voluntary.

“Its fund is being depleted and we have long been saying that – hundreds of billions being lost to corruption,” he said.

Roque said he was having a hard time exposing corruption in PhilHealth because of his duties as presidential spokesperson, but he could not allow the implementation of the health care law, which he coauthored, to be derailed due to irregularities.

He said he was thinking of taking leave as presidential spokesperson and devoting his time to cleaning up PhilHealth.

In a separate interview with Radyo Inquirer, Roque said he had yet to see Morales take action and file charges against crooks in the agency.

He said he wanted to personally see what steps Morales had taken to hold people in Philhealth accountable.

“I have yet to hear of any person fired by Morales or any investigation he had undertaken,” Roque said.

The Universal Health Care programme has to be funded, as it is mandated by law, he added.

PhilHealth pays for the medical bills of Covid-19 patients and also provides primary health benefits to Filipinos.

Payment of premiums declined when the government placed Luzon on lockdown in mid-March to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus that causes Covid-19. Other regions followed with their own lockdowns, halting economic activity in much of the country.

Morales told a hearing called by a joint congressional oversight committee on Tuesday that Republic Act No 11223, the Universal Health Care law that the president signed in March last year, may have to be sidelined because PhilHealth’s collections this year had dropped by 90 per cent due to the lockdowns.

He estimated that PhilHealth would have a budget deficit of about 100 billion pesos ($2 billion) starting at the end of this year until 2024, as the national government allocated only 71.35 billion pesos for health care programmes for this year.

But Senate President Pro

Tempore Ralph Recto, a former head of the Senate finance committee, said PhilHealth did not need to delay implementation of the law for lack of budget, as the government could just realign funds from other state agencies.

Instead of scrimping on medical benefits, he said, the government should cut back on “unnecessary expenses [and] administrative costs” like maintenance and other operating expenses.

Recto told Philippine Daily Inquirer: “It’s just a matter of priority . . . Consumers, workers and investors will not have confidence in the economy if we do not prioritise health spending.”