Marcos studying Herbosa's appeal to suspend PhilHealth premium hike — Palace

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is studying the appeal of Health Secretary Ted Herbosa to suspend the implementation of Philippine Health Insurance Corporation's (PhilHealth) premium rate increase this year.

"The President is studying the request," Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cheloy Garafil told reporters when asked if Marcos already received the letter from the Health chief.

Herbosa earlier said he sent a recommendation letter to Marcos on Tuesday, stressing that the move would not significantly impact the state health insurer's financial standing if the premium increase were delayed.

"If ever the President will agree to the contribution, my recommendation is to start from where we stopped, not the current 5%. If we stopped at 2% or 3% increase, we start at where it was suspended. That for me is the logical way to lift suspension. We don't jump to a very high [rate] kasi kawawa ang mga tao (We don't jump to a very high rate because people will suffer)," Herbosa said.

For Herbosa, PhilHealth has enough money to continue to give benefits to the public.

"It will not be hurt by delaying the increase in premium. I need to see good actuarials on this one," Herbosa said.

The scheduled increase in PhilHealth rates is in accordance with the Universal Health Care (UHC), which was signed in 2019 by then-President Rodrigo Duterte.

The premium rate was supposed to increase to 4.5% last year, while the monthly basic salary ceiling should have been P90,000.

The law mandates hikes in the PhilHealth contribution rate until it reaches 5% by 2024. — VDV, GMA Integrated News