Senator Chiz Escudero will fund the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation
(Philhealth) premium of all barangay officials in the country for 2015.
Mr. Escudero, chairperson of the Senate
Finance Committe, said next year’s budget will have all barangay officials in
the country covered by the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) through
PhilHealth benefits.
The senator said he will put a special
provision in the PhilHealth budget to include an amount intended to cover the
premiums of barangay officials who are not yet enrolled in the government
health insurance program.
An estimated 600,000 barangay officials
from the country’s 42,000 barangays will stand to benefit from this healthcare
program. Currently, under a Department of the Interior and Local Government
Memorandum, barangay officials are enrolled in PhilHealth depending on the
capacity of the barangay to pay their premiums.
“Given Philhealth’s increased budget,
the inclusion of all barangay officials as its members can be
made mandatory. As public servants who are in the frontlines of public
services, the members of the Sangguniang Barangay should have access to
healthcare assistance, which is a universal basic service,” Escudero said.
“We will not wait anymore for the NHIP
to identify barangays and its members for enrollment as this will slow down the
delivery of a much-needed basic service which is elusive to most of our
barangay officials,” the senator added.
From its P12 billion budget in 2013,
PhilHealth’s appropriation amounted to over P37 billion as full national
government subsidy for the health insurance premium of over 15 million families
for 2015.
According to the Department of Health
(DOH), 82 percent of the total population or around 80 million individuals are
already covered by PhilHealth. It says the goal is to boost its coverage to
more than 90 percent of the total population by the end of 2015.
Mr. Escudero explained that the
estimated 600,000 to 700,000 additional members from the Sangguniang Barangay,
including barangay tanods, to the exisiting number of individuals that are
covered by the health insurance is very well within its absorptive capacity.
Under the Local Government Code, a
barangay chairman, along with the other barangay officials, should get paid
between P600 and P1,000, and Mr. Escudero said the compensation they are receiving
is enough proof that the health insurance is a need rather than an incentive.
“Their compensation is not even enough
to buy the most basic of medicines, much more pay for hospitalization bills,”
said Escudero.
Barangay officials, as
listed, will
be classified as members earning P8,999 and below, and shall pay P100 as
monthly premium.
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