Salceda eyes new insurance scheme for senior citizens
HHe presented this proposal during his sponsorship speech for House Bill No. 52, the Philhealth Reform Act, which was discussed by the Committee on Health on Wednesday.
“Our proposed framework is to allow Philhealth to create a catastrophic health insurance program for senior citizens on top of the government’s sponsorship of coverage for senior citizens,” Salceda said in his speech.
Salceda said that the program is necessary because “seniors tend to pay a larger share of the hospital bill out-of-pocket.”
Data from Philhealth claims, as cited by Salceda, shows that only about a third of seniors’ hospital bills from Level 3 private hospitals get some level of insurance support and subsidy, making them the least supported sector as a share of total hospital costs.
“Those who have the least money are the ones who have to pay the most,” Salceda said, highlighting the financial strain on senior citizens.
Catastrophic health expenditures are those that consume a significant portion of a household’s income, such as costs for cancer treatments and major hospitalizations. Salceda pointed out that the median reported individual or conjugal income for seniors is P3,000 per month, with 46 percent living below the poverty line as of 2018, according to the Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Health in the Philippines (LSAHP).
“This results in a welfare gap of around P9.1 trillion to give senior citizens a decent old age. Around 18 percent, or P1.67 trillion, is the healthcare financing gap for quality care for senior citizens. I’m not saying we should cover the whole thing. But certainly there are ways to finance the gap,” he said.
He noted that while the proportion of households experiencing catastrophic health expenditures in the Philippines is declining, largely due to increased fiscal resources from the Sin Tax Law, these expenditures still disproportionately affect elderly households.
To fund this proposed insurance scheme, Salceda suggested utilizing new sin taxes and revenue growth from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
He also mentioned that “Philhealth’s excess funds can support this new program.”
“We have a duty to provide dignified old age and quality care for senior citizens. They didn’t get the best cards in life. So, they didn’t get to save enough for pension and elderly health care. But there are financial solutions to this fundamental problem of inequity,” he said. OUSE Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda is pushing for a specialized health insurance program for senior citizens to cover catastrophic health expenditures under the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth).