PhilHealth official response to increased premium rates affecting OFWs

PHILHEALTH fully understands the sentiments of our oversees filipino workers (OFWs) regarding the increase in premiums. We have explored several possibilities to cushion the impact of the increase through flexible payment terms that are embodied in the recently published circular. The increased premium rates from 2.75 percent to 3 percent in 2020 is in accordance with specific provisions of Republic Act 11223 otherwise known as the Universal Health Care Act of 2019. These premium rates were announced last year in PhilHealth Circular No. 2019–0009 published in Nov. 23, 2019, entitled ‘Premium Contribution Schedule in the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP)’ and further clarified by the recently published PhilHealth Circular No. 2020-0014.

The purpose of the Universal Health Care Act, as in other societies with the same program, is to provide affordable and adequate healthcare to all Filipinos. Such a program requires funding, collected through premium contributions. In 2019, 44 percent of the premiums were subsidized by the national government while the balance was collected from individual members and their employers, where OFWs are counted. Benefits-wise, 36 percent of beneficiaries were from the informal and private sector while 37 percent were accounted for from the indigents and senior citizens whose premiums were paid by the national government.