PhilHealth told: Fully cover cancer, heart treatments
A LAWMAKER urged the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to fully cover cancer treatment, heart bypass surgery and major hospital operations amid its plans to increase benefits by 30 percent.
AGRI Partylist Rep. Wilbert Lee on Tuesday said the treatment of the illnesses above costs millions, while the coverage of the state health insurer only offers P150,000 to P600,000 for the entire course of treatment.
«In the case of cancer, we know that we cannot have installment treatment. We need to make this unlimited; let's have full coverage. Whatever is needed to treat cancer, PhilHealth should cover that,» Lee said in Filipino.
He added that heart bypass and coronary artery bypass surgeries cost millions of pesos, but PhilHealth has capped the cost of coverage to P500,000.
He said that he will not stop at the 30 percent increase that he fought for during the deliberations of the 2024 budget, as there are «so many cases» where even if the benefits are doubled, it is still not enough for members to pay.
Lee had pushed to expand the health care packages and coverage of PhilHealth after receiving complaints that some hospitals did not want to accept indigent patients as they could not pay doctors and employees due to the insurer's huge debts.
The state health insurer told Lee during the deliberations of the proposed 2024 budget of the Department of Health that it had P466 billion worth of investible funds and a net income of P68.4 billion.
Lee filed House Resolution 1407 urging PhilHealth to update and increase its coverage by 30 percent, noting that its case rate is «no longer responsive to the hospitalization cost of the beneficiaries.»
The State health insurer is set to implement the increase in its case rates on February 14.
Lee also called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to temporarily suspend the implementation of the PhilHealth premium rate hike from 4 percent to 5 percent this year.
«I would urge the President to suspend it temporarily until we recover. We need to relieve the burden of our countrymen and lessen their worry that they would be mired in debt once they get sick,» he said.
