PhilHealth has sufficient funds for 2025 - Marcos

Metro Manila, Philippines - President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. believes state insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has sufficient funds for 2025 amid a possible zero subsidy in next year’s budget.

Marcos said PhilHealth has P500 billion in reserve funds and would only need P100 billion annually to provide services.

“The reason we do not want to subsidize is because… the subsidy uupo lang doon sa [will only remain in the] bank account ng [of] PhilHealth, hindi magagamit, eh marami tayong paggagamitan noon [it will not be utilized, but we have lot of spending from that],” the chief executive told reporters on Monday, Dec. 16.

“They have sufficient funds to carry on,” he added.

Marcos said the problem with PhilHealth is its processing capacity of claims.

The president promised to sign the 2025 General Appropriations Bill before Christmas.

The final version from the bicameral conference committee struck out the P74 billion proposed PhilHealth subsidy. The panel said the corporation has P600 billion in reserve funds to use. 

Surplus funds

During Monday’s flag ceremony at his agency, Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said the PhilHealth board will approve a P284 billion budget for next year. Herbosa sits as chairperson of the board of directors.

Herbosa said P271 billion will be for benefit expenses, P12 billion for administrative expenses, and P300 million for capital outlay.

For this year’s budget, PhilHealth has over P243 billion earmarked for benefit claim expenses. 

“Sa 2024, 63 percent lang po ang utilization ng pera na inallocate ng pamahalaan para sa PhilHealth [benefits]... Ibig sabihin nun, nagkaroon sila ng ‘surplus’ of P150 billion,” Herbosa said.

[Translation: PhilHealth has a 63 percent utilization rate this year… This means it has a surplus of P150 million.]

This could cover the proposed P74-billion subsidy next year, Herbosa said, at the same time telling Department of Health employees not to believe social media posts that the health insurer would have a zero spending plan for 2025.

“Yung P150 billion, kayang bayaran ‘yung remainder. Yung subsidy natin, P5,000 per indirect member. Ang indirect members, mga 16 million. Pag minultiply mo ‘yun, mga P80 billion,”

[Translation: The P150 billion can cover the remainder. PhilHealth has a P5,000 subsidy per indirect member. The indirect members are around 16 million. If we compute that, that’s P80 billion.]

“Ano ‘yun, itatabi, itatago na naman sa bangko ‘yung P150 billion? [Would they keep the P150 billion in the bank?]” he said.

“‘Yung P284 billion na budget, halos kasing laki po ng budget ng DOH ‘yun. Pero tayo ang nagbibigay ng serbisyo [Translation: The P284 billion budget is almost the same level as the DOH’s. But it is the DOH that is providing services.],” he also said.

PhilHealth has been under hot water since it declared ₱89.9 billion of its funds as excessive, allowing the Finance Department to have the amount reverted to the Bureau of the Treasury. The Supreme Court has issued a temporary restraining order against the transfer of the remaining nearly ₱30 billion.