An official of the Philippine Health Insurance (PhilHealth) confirmed that more than 15 million Filipinos have not yet registered with the state insurer.
According to PhilHealth Vice-President Oscar Abadu Jr., as of September 2020, 94.9 million or 86.1% of the country’s population is already a member of the state insurer while 15.2 million are still unregistered.
However, he said, under the Universal Health Care law, all Filipinos, who now have a population of 110.9 million, are automatically covered by PhilHealth.
“Under Section 5 of the law, all Filipinos should be covered … Also, what we are aiming to achieve in the next few months is that all few months is that each and every Filipinos is registered with a primary care provider,” Abadu said.
He added that this would also be the entry point of all citizens to have a higher level of care provision through a network system.
He said that to achieve this, they need to reach people who are still not registered with PhilHealth.
He further stressed that if the Filipinos achieve 100% enrollment in PhilHealth, there will also be better predictability for healthcare spending.
Abadu further revealed that most people who are not registered with PhilHealth dependents of members, indigenous people, and those living in remote areas.
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Over 15 million Filipinos not registered with PhilHealth
He encouraged PhilHealth members to update their information on Philhealth regularly.
He said they are also in contact with local governments and IP organizations to track such individuals and register at their offices.
Meanwhile, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said earlier the Universal Health Care law would continue regardless of what will happen to state insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
“Whether or not ma-privatize or public [pa rin] ang PhilHealth, hindi matitigil ang pagpapatupad ng UHC law,” Vergeire said in an online forum.
(Whether the PhilHealth becomes private or remain public, the implementation of UHC law will continue.)
Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III earlier revealed that President Rodrigo Duterte is considering abolishing or privatizing health insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).