Politicos told not to use PhilHealth
-A A +AFriday, February 8, 2013
THE Philippine Health (PhilHealth) Insurance Corporation has warned politicians not to use their sponsored PhilHealth cards as a tool in campaigning for this year’s May 13 elections.
“Maganda kasing pangkampanya yan, it’s a political tool,” regional vice president of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation Elvira Ver admitted.
Ver said pictures of candidates in the May 13 polls must not be placed on identification cards as enrolment of indigent patients into PhilHealth since membership in this agency is mandated by law and politicians should not take credit for it.
“Way back last year, we are already done in making the IDs. The coverage of that ID is from May 2012 to May 2013. So the politicians do not have any ID to give anymore because the IDs are already given to members,” Ver said.
He cited that in Visayas, some politicians placed their IDs on the PhilHealth cards “to make it appear that these came from them, which is why we have given these IDs earlier so no one will take credit from them.”
To address possible abuse of PhilHealth memberships, Ver said they have been intensifying their Information Education Campaign to disseminate the use of PhilHealth cards to stress these are not from politicians especially local chief executives but is part of the universal health coverage goals of the National Government.
“We made sure that before the election campaign started, we already released the IDs,” she added.
She said their standard operating procedure is to tell beneficiaries about the benefits of becoming a member.
The PhilHealth board made the distribution of IDs inaccessible to politicians through early release of cards in coordination with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Indigent beneficiaries of PhilHealth were also identified using the DSWD’s National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction and not from choices of elective officials while the distribution of cards is being carried out by the Department of Health. (Ryan Fernandez/UPB Intern)
Published in the Sun.Star Baguio newspaper on February 09, 2013.
Local news
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