President Duterte was in favor of deferring PhilHealth’s 2021 membership contribution increase, according to Senator Go.
Senator Christopher “Bong” Go on Sunday said that President Rodrigo Duterte was in favor of deferring the 2021 membership contribution increase of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) but acknowledged that legislation was needed for deferring it.
Senator Go, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and President Duterte’s long-time aide, said in a statement that the President expressed his willingness to sign legislation that will allow the deferment of the increase in membership contribution from 3% to 3.5%.
He added that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) was looking into whether the Philippine government could augment the amount needed by PhilHealth in order for its services to remain unaffected by the deferment of the contribution increase.
Senator Go earlier said that the membership contribution increase could be deferred through a provision in the proposed “Bayanihan 3” law.
READ ALSO: PhilHealth To Collect Higher Membership Contributions Starting 2021
According to Senator Go, another option was to propose an amendatory bill that would specifically address the specific provision in the Universal Health Care law mandating the said increase.
“I am appealing to our government finance managers and fellow legislators to highly consider the deferment of the implementation of the increase in PhilHealth contribution rate for 2021,” said Senator Go.
PhilHealth had previously said that the contribution increase was meant to ensure sufficient funding for the healthcare benefits of its members as mandated by the Universal Health Care law.
For more news and updates, you may feel free to visit this site more often. You may also visit Newspapers.ph via the official Facebook page and YouTube channel.