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Suspend hike in Philhealth contributions: Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go presides over a hybrid hearing Tuesday, March 2, 2021 on several proposals seeking to grant the President the power to suspend the scheduled increase in member contribution rate of the state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth). According to Go, the law mandates an increase in membership premium by 0.5 percent yearly starting this year until it reaches the five percent limit in 2025. “This year the premium rate is scheduled to increase to 3.5 percent of the monthly basic salary of the direct contributor from 3 percent in 2020. But when the law was crafted, no one knew that a pandemic would hit us. The country is in an emergency state. People cannot afford to pay the additional cost due to the crisis,” Go explained. He said that since the increase in PhilHealth contributions was mandated by an existing law, particularly the Universal Health Care law, Congress is currently studying possible legislative interventions to defer the increase in contributions at this time. (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)