Herbosa: Nearly P90B excess PhilHealth funds to be used for health programs

Health Secretary Ted Herbosa on Tuesday assured that the P89.9 billion in excess funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will be rechanneled to fund programs for the medical community.

Speaking to reporters at the sidelines of a post-SONA discussion, Herbosa said that Finance Secretary Ralph Recto himself “promised” that the unused funds would be used for health-related programs.

“I'd like to reassure our medical community—’yung P89.9 [billion], pinromise ni Secretary Recto, ‘Health for health’ sabi niya. Words niya ‘yan, ‘Health money for health,’” he said.

(Secretary Recto promised that the P89.9 billion health money will be used for health. His words were “Health for health.”)

Herbosa said he personally requested Recto to make this possible,  while emphasizing that PhilHealth could stand on its own sans the P89.9 billion. 

“Basta walang mangyayari sa PhilHealth [nothing will happen to PhilHealth]. Even if you take out the P89.9, PhilHealth is healthy. It can pay for the benefits, hindi siya magkukulang ng pera [it will not lack funds],” he said.

He also clarified that the excess funds did not come from PhilHealth members’ contributions, but from the government's subsidy so that PhilHealth could use it to help the indigent community and senior citizens.

“DOF sits in the Board of PhilHealth. So ang DOF nag-presenta nito— several years of excess money being given by government by GAA (General Appropriations Act) to PhilHealth na hindi nila nagagamit at nile-label nila wrongly as savings,” Herbosa said. 

(The DOF presented this---several years of excess money being given by government by GAA to PhilHealth that is not being used and being wrongly labeled as savings.) 

He said that the excess funds should instead be labeled as “unprogrammed appropriations.” 

Last Monday, the Department of Finance (DOF) defended the utilization of unused and idle funds of government corporations such as PhilHealth, saying this was “more prudent” than borrowing or imposing taxes.

DOF said that in the case of PhilHealth, “unused government subsidies are not part of its reserve funds, nor income that is being restricted by the Universal Health Care Act to be used by the national government as a general fund.”

A labor union earlier called out the utilization of the reported P89 billion in unused and idle funds of PhilHealth for pet projects, which could have been used to improve the country's healthcare system.

Independent health advocate Dr. Tony Leachon earlier reported the figure, which he said could be used to address high premium payments and improvement of low hospitalization benefits, among others. —RF, GMA Integrated News