Press Release
February 11, 2007

Proposed 2007 budget to ensure Philhealth cards
will not be exploited for political campaigning, says Drilon

When the 2007 national budget is enacted into law, all Filipino indigents will be entitled to mandatory health coverage under the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation.

However, a special provision has been inserted to ensure that Philhealth cards will not be exploited anew for campaign purposes during the May polls, Liberal Party (LP) and Senate Finance Committee Chief Franklin Drilon said today.

In order to avoid a repeat of allegations that the distribution of Philhealth cards were being used for political campaign purposes, Drilon explained that a special provision in the proposed General Appropriations Act of 2007 was put in place mandating that new enrollees for the National Health Insurance Program will be allowed only in July, when the May midterms elections was over.

Drilon said a sum of P3.5 billion has been placed in the proposed P1.126 trillion national budget this year as payment for the national government counterpart in premium contributions of indigents enrolled in the Philhealth program.

Of the amount, Drilon explained, P1.5 billion has been allocated for existing enrollees to ensure their continued health coverage under Philhealth. Another P1.5 billion has been appropriated for new enrollees, Drilon said, but the amount can only be used to enroll indigents in July, after the May elections is over.

"We have established a sure-fire mechanism that this Philhealth program will not be tainted again with criticisms that it was being used for political purposes by certain unscrupulous officials." Drilon said.

"Philhealth is a very laudable and important project," Drilon added. "If implemented properly it will benefit millions of poor Filipino families who can avail themselves of their basic right to health care which they could not afford but certainly deserve from government. We must insulate Philhealth from the dirty game of politics."

Drilon said the 2007 budget bill also mandates for the implementation of universal health coverage for poor Filipinos. According to the Philhealth website, the Philhealth (Sponsored) Indigent Program aims to provide Medicare privileges to the marginalized sector of Philippine society. The target beneficiaries are those belonging to the 25 percent lowest income bracket of the population and are identified through a survey conducted by the local social welfare development office.

"With the devolution of health services to local officials, city and provincial governments are mandated to ensure universal coverage for all indigents. This will ensure that the poor may avail of health services," Drilon said.

Drilon explained that the needed funding requirement to cover the Philhealth programs for indigents will be charged against the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of local governments. "The cities shall assume 100 percent of the cost of the implementation while municipalities and provinces shall share the cost in proportion to their IRA," Drilon explained.

During the Senate hearings on the proposed 2007 budget of the Department of Health in October, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said he agreed with the suggestion of Drilon that measures must be undertaken to avoid a repetition of charges that the distribution of Philhealth cards were used to boost the campaign of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during the May 2004 elections.

It will be recalled that critics of President Arroyo accused her of allegedly using the Philhealth cards for political purposes during the elections. Testifying before the Citizens' Congress for Truth and Accountability forum earlier this year, former social welfare secretary Dinky Soliman confessed to being part of a government group that used public funds for President Arroyo's 2004 presidential campaign.

Soliman said she helped distribute free insurance Philhealth cards to voters in areas considered strongholds of Arroyo's rivals, among them movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., during the 2004 campaign.

Government critics said money coming from the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration (OWWA) was diverted to pay for the Philhealth cards. Philhealth card holders are supposed to pay insurance premiums of around P1,000, but during the campaign, voters got them for free, the critics added.

Duque, who was Philhealth president during the 2004 campaign, denied Soliman's claim that the Philhealth cards were used for the Arroyo campaign.

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