Pacquiao seeks one-year freeze on PhilHealth premium rate hike for health workers

Senator Manny Pacquiao has filed a resolution proposing a one-year suspension on increases in PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corporation) premium contributions for healthcare professionals and other health care workers for the year 2020.

He said Senate Resolution No. 429 is intended as a token of gratitude to health workers and professionals for unselfishly putting their lives on the line in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“The first year of the implementation of the increase rate of premium contributions coincided with the advent and continuation of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. This has constrained most, if not all, health care professionals and other health care workers in the country sacrificing and risking their well-being and even their lives, to help cure the afflicted and stem the surge of transmission of the disease caused by the COVID-19 virus,” Pacquiao said in his resolution.

The senator supported the position of the Philippine Medical Association, which made an earlier push to suspend rate hikes on premium payments of health workers.

Pacquiao filed the resolution as PhilHealth is poised to implement an increase in the premium payment from 2.75 percent to 3 percent of the monthly salary of its members. 

The increase is provided for under Republic Act No. 11223, or the Universal Health Care law, which automatically enrols all Filipino citizens in the government’s National health Insurance Program. There will be annual increases until the premium rate reaches 5 percent by 2024.