PhilHealth celebrates 19 years of providing basic health coverage to Filipinos

By: Erlinda Olivia P. Tiu

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, February 14 (PIA) – The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation in Tacloban City joins the other 16 Regional Offices, , five branches, 120 local health insurance offices all over the Philippines in celebrating 19 years of outstanding service providing basic health coverage to Filipinos.

Regional Vice President Walter Bacareza told the Philippine Information Agency that the Regional Office 8 of PhilHealth will celebrate the special occasion with a Mass at the Regional Office and a press conference cum get together with the local media.

“We want to apprise them of our accomplishments and some policy updates,” Mr. Bacareza said. The presscon will be held at Hotel Lorenza at 10:00 to 12 o’clock noon, he added.

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is celebrating its 19th Anniversary on February 14, 2014, with the theme “Benepisyong PhilHealth, Alamin at Gamitin!”

PhilHealth, created by Republic Act 7875, the National Health Insurance Act, signed on February 14, 1995, is an attached agency of the Department of Health.

It is mandated to administer the country’s National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) that provides basic health coverage and accessible, quality health services for all Filipinos through PhilHealth insurance.

Millions of Filipinos count on PhilHealth, which used to be the Philippine Medical Care Commission, for financial protection against health risks. The number of enrollees covered by the agencies has expanded from 43.5 million in 2002 to 77 million today.

In 2013, its claim benefit payments amounted to P45.24-billion. PhilHealth is affiliated with International Social Security Association, the ASEAN Social Security Association, and the Philippine Social Security Association.

PhilHealth has four categories of enrollees : the formal sector or workers employed by companies and institutions; indigents with no means of support; retirees (non-paying members) who are 60 or older; and those not eligible for the first three categories, such as those under the overseas workers program. Covered are more than 2.52 million overseas Filipino workers and 2.48 million of their dependents, and 5.2 million of poorest families listed under Department of Social Welfare and Development’s National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR). They are enrolled under the Sponsored Program, with premiums paid for by the national government. Philhealth also enlists another five million families whose premiums are subsidized by local governments.

In the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yolanda, PhilHealth announced that all Yolanda survivors in Eastern Visayas , PhilHealth members or not, may avail of all PhilHealth benefits in any of the DOH certified health care institutions. (PIA 8)

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