Sen. Risa Hontiveros Speaks on Zero Subsidy for PhilHealth
RISA HONTIVEROS – The Senator claimed that giving PhilHealth zero subsidy for 2025 would deny the Filipino people “our right to health”.
Countless people were shocked by the decision of the lawmakers to gve a zero subsidy to PhilHealth for 2025. It was Senator Grace Poe, the chairman of the Senate Finance committee, who announced the decision from the joint discussion between the lawmakers of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
According to the Senator, PhilHealth will have to use their reserve funds. The lawmaker claimed that the state health insurer probably has P600 billion kept a bank account. She stressed that while there is no subsidy appropriation for the state health insurer, they will still be given their budget for their operations.
Senate President Chiz Escudero claimed that the decision is allegedly due to the lapses of the state health insurer. He claimed that PhilHealth failed to follow the mandate of the Universal Healthcare Law on “no billing” mandate.
Escudero further expressed that PhilHealth having a huge reserve fund is allegedly evident of its failure to function. According to the Senate President, he hopes that this will be a wake up call to PhilHealth.
On the other side, there are also lawmakers who are not in favor of the zero subsidy for PhilHealth in 2025. One of them is Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said that not granting PhilHealth subsidy will deny the Filipinos of “our right to health”. The Senator previously stressed that it is the government’s responsibility to pay for the indirect contributors, including the poor Filipinos, the senior citizens, and the persons with disability (PWDs).
According to Hontiveros, once the government denies PhilHealth of its subsidy, the contributions for the poor, the senior citizens, and the PWDs will allegedly be shouldered by the ordinary citizens who pay for their PhilHealth premiums every month.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros stressed that denying PhilHealth of a subsidy is illegal, unfair, and potentially unconstitutional. An economist said that removing PhilHealth’s subsidy is not the proper punishment and the executives must be fired.