SENATE President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto urged Congress on Sunday to pass a bill that would provide health insurance benefits to some six million senior citizens and not just those who are considered as indigents.
"The mandatory Philhealth coverage for indigent senior citizens enables them to avail of health services, free from out-of-pocket expenses. While this provision is meritorious, it is limited only to indigent senior citizens, who are mostly under the indigent or sponsored membership of Philhealth," said Recto, author of Senate Bill 712.
As a result, the senator said senior citizens who are not considered as indigents but who cannot afford to enroll themselves under the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) are deprived of the Philhealth benefits.
Under the Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, a senior citizen can qualify as indigent if he is frail, sickly or with disability and without any source of income/financial assistance to sustain his basic needs.
The screening of potential Philhealth beneficiaries will be done by Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in consultation with the National Coordinating and Monitoring Board (NCMB).
Another salient provision of the bill is to source the funds needed to ensure the PhilHealth coverage of the country’s 6.1 million senior citizens from the National Health Insurance Fund.
“I see no problem in PhilHealth footing the bill of providing coverage to all our senior citizens, especially if its vault is filled with more than P110 billion in retained earnings. I have always maintained that this fund should be used to improve the delivery of health services to the people,” Recto said.
Local government units are currently tasked to spend for the Philhealth coverage of their indigent elderly.
Recto said his bill had the support of Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)