‘Rate hike delay to cut Philhealth fund life by 6 mos’
STATE-RUN Philippine Health Insurance Corporation’s (Philhealth) fund life is seen to shorten by six months from August 2028 to February 2028 due to the proposed deferment of the premium hike and the expected reduction in the number of payors amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
At Tuesday’s Senate committee hearing on bills granting the President the power to suspend increases in Philhealth contribution, National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said Philhealth is projected to book a net loss of P17.5 billion this year with the deferment in the premium rate increase and the decline in the number of payors.
“This is expected to be covered by the institution’s reserve fund, which will reduce the said fund from P160.6 billion to P143.5 billion. The implication is that it will shorten the fund life of Philhealth by six months from August 2028 to February 2028,” said De Leon, a representative/alternate of Philhealth’s board of directors exofficio member Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III.
De Leon also said Philhealth’s total liabilities, including its contin
gent liabilities, had already amounted to P6.09 trillion as of end-2020.
Compared to their original projection in 2021, De Leon said they expect a “significant” reduction in Philhealth’s collection by 17.7 percent or P15.6 billion given the proposed premium hike deferment.
On top of this, she said they expect the number of payors to decline by about 5 million due to the pandemic. From their original 2020 projection of 18 million payors this year, she said they project this to drop to 13 million payors in their revised 2021 projection.
“Accounting for this, we expect a shortfall in the collection, amounting to P20.25 billion when compared to the 2021 original projection,” she said. “Anticipating this, the Philhealth board of directors already reduced those 2021 expenditures for its primary care benefit package or the Konsultasyong Sulit at Tama by P17 billion.”
P20-B collection drop
IN the same hearing, Philhealth's Acting Senior Vice President Nerissa Santiago also said they expect a P20.2-billion drop in Philhealth’s collections this year due to the decline in the number of payors and the proposed deferment of premium hike.
For 2022, Santiago said they are estimating a bigger drop in Philhealth’s collection amounting to P44.4 billion should the impact of the pandemic continue and if the scheduled premium rate hike this year would be pushed back to 2022.
Early this year, Philhealth had announced that it is temporarily deferring the implementation of its scheduled premium contribution rate hike to 3.5 percent from 3 percent for direct contributors following President’s directive.
Philhealth President and Chief Executive Officer Dante A. Gierran earlier said an “interim arrangement” will be good until Congress passes a new law allowing the deferment of scheduled premium adjustment in the Universal Health Care law.