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WHAT’S going on in the bicameral conference committee on the General Appropriations Bill for 2025? The group who filed a petition to the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the transfer of PhilHealth funds to the national government, wants to know.
WHAT’S going on in the bicameral conference committee on the General Appropriations Bill for 2025? The group who filed a petition to the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the transfer of PhilHealth funds to the national government, wants to know.
The group, led by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, has issued a new statement, this time against the defunding of PhilHealth. The bill for the Fiscal Year 2025 national budget, which the bicameral panel is currently deliberating on, proposes a much-reduced allocation for PhilHealth, according to the group. It is way below the amount needed to cover the minimum premium for all PhilHealth indirect contributors. The bill also violates the earmarking of revenues from the Sin Tax Law because it allocates an amount much lower than what must be earmarked for PhilHealth, based on the Sin Tax Law provision. In their new statement, the petitioners affirmed they strongly believe that the budget bill’s provisions for PhilHealth, as they currently stand, violate key relevant laws such as the Universal Health Care Act , the Sin Tax Law, and above all, the people’s Constitutional Right to Health. If the 2025 budget bill passes a PhilHealth budget that violates said laws, the petitioners, backed by a constituency of civil society organizations, may again be compelled to seek redress from the Supreme Court, according to civil-society groups backing them. The Pimentel-led group’s new statement says: “We, the group that petitioned the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the transfer of PhilHealth funds to national government, once again raise our grave concern over the action of both the Executive and Congress to defund the State health insurer as manifested in the 2025 budget bill that the Bicameral Conference Committee is deliberating. As we will explain, the budget bill’s provisions for PhilHealth, as they currently stand, violate the Universal Health Care Act , the Sin Tax Law, and above all, the people’s Constitutional Right to Health.” The group made an urgent call on the members of the Bicameral Conference Committee on the 2025 Budget from the House of Representatives and Senate to immediately act on the following: 1. Restore PhilHealth’s budget to provide the full premium coverage of indirect contributors based on the correct rate. For Fiscal Year 2025, PhilHealth requested a budget of P150.92 billion to cover the premiums of 25.28 million indirect contributors. However, this has been radically reduced in the National Expenditure Program to P53.13 billion. “The significant defunding of the PhilHealth budget, which also occurred in the FY 2024 national budget, adversely impacts the benefits to be provided for all the PhilHealth members. Reducing the PhilHealth budget allocation meant for the premium of the indirect contributors destroys the whole nature of PhilHealth as a social health insurance. It harms the whole membership; not only does this degrade the membership of indirect contributors, but it also makes the direct contributors, majority of whom are from the working class, bear a much heavier burden of providing the financial risk protection of all,” the group said 2.Fully allocate to PhilHealth the premium of indirect contributors the earmarked funds from Sin Tax reform laws. Provide the exact allocation for the premium of indirect contributors in the 2025 budget, as mandated by the law. Since 2023, PhilHealth has not been receiving the entirety of the earmarked funds mandated in the Sin Tax Law. Section 14 of Republic Act 11346 mandates that 80 percent of 50 percent of the total revenue from tobacco and sweetened beverages shall be allocated to PhilHealth to implement the UHC Act. 3. Protect and strengthen the mandate of the Health Technology Assessment Council in the implementation of the UHC Act. Disallow any insertion in the 2025 GAA that will bypass health technology assessment. “We oppose any attempt to insert a Special Provision in the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients budget that will allow the purchase of medicines not approved by HTAC and not included in the Philippine National Drug Formulary. This violates Section 34 of the UHC Act, which mandates that the determination of entitlements such as drugs, medicines, pharmaceutical products, and other devices, procedures and services shall have undergone a fair and transparent HTAC process. The goal of HTAC is to ensure that health care that is being provided to Filipino patients is safe, effective, efficient, fair, affordable and responsive. The group’s statement concluded: “In the event that Congress does not heed this call and passes a degraded PhilHealth budget in the 2025 GAA, the petitioners will be compelled to once again seek redress from the Supreme Court and the protection of our Constitution. We reiterate that the 2025 GAA’s PhilHealth provision violates the Universal Health Care Act and the Sin Tax Law. It is unconstitutional for Congress to insert riders in the GAA and to have the GAA amend these statutes. Considering its negative impact to our social health insurance program and the protection that it is supposed to guarantee for our people, we assert that 2025 GAA’s debasing of PhilHealth violates the constitutional right to health of all PhilHealth members—the Filipino people.” Besides Pimentel, the other petitioners are: Ernesto Ofracio, Junice Melgar, Cielo Magno, Minguita Padilla, Dante Gatmaytan, Ibarra Gutierrez, Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa , Public Services Labor Independent Confederation Foundation, Inc. and the Philippine Medical Association .
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