Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) President and Chief Executive Officer Dante Gierran said the scheduled monthly premium hike for 2021 is a must to ensure the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law for the state insurer’s 110 million members.
Gierran said PhilHealth recognizes how the pandemic affected its members. “However, it is bound to implement the UHC Law which has been the beacon and source of hope for the country that is aiming for better healthcare services even as it battles Covid-19,” he said.
The monthly contribution increase is provided for in Section 10 of the UHC Law and its implementing rules and regulations. PhilHealth published its guidelines in Circular 2020-005 on March 5, 2020.
PhilHealth contribution for 2021 of members earning below P10,000 per month would be P350 a month. Those earning P10,000.01 to P69,999.99 would have to pay P350 to P2,449.99. Meanwhile, the monthly contribution of those earning P70,000 or higher is fixed at P2,450.
“Contributions of employed members (including Kasambahays) shall be equally shared between employees and employers, while those of self-paying members, professional practitioners and land-based migrant workers and other direct contributors with no employee-employer relationship are computed straight based on their monthly earnings and paid wholly by the member,” said PhilHealth.
PhilHealth chief explains premium hike
PhilHealth said that the “law emphasized the importance of members’ social health insurance contributions to provide the necessary funding for various reforms under the UHC that are now being availed of by Filipinos.”
President Rodrigo signed a Universal Health Care (UHC) Bill into law (Republic Act No. 11223) that automatically enrolls all Filipino citizens in the National Health Insurance Program and prescribes complementary reforms in the health system.
Aside from the increase in PhilHealth contribution, Social Security System (SSS) would implement a 13 percent increase in their members’ monthly contribution starting in January 2021.
It said the full implementation by 2025 of the restructured rates and other reforms set in Republic Act (RA) No. 11199 or the Social Security Act (SSA) of 2018 will offset the financial impact to the Fund of the P1,000 increase in the monthly pension of all member-pensioners that was implemented in 2017.