THE Supreme Court has dismissed a petition of the left-leaning Kilusang Mayo Uno questioning the validity of PhilHealth’s circulars increasing the premiums for the National Health Insurance Program.
In a decision written by Associate Justice Arturo Brion, the high court dismissed for lack of merit KMU’S petition assailing the validity of PhilHealth’s Circulars 0027, 0025 and 0024 in 2013 that increased the health insurance premiums paid by its members starting in 2014.
PhilHealth’s Circular 0024 increased the minimum annual premium rate for the Individually Paying Program to P2,400 for members with a monthly income of P25,000 and below.
Circular 0025 adjusted the annual premium rate for the Overseas Workers Program to P2,400 for all land-based Filipino workers, while Circular 0027 retained the 2.5-percent premium rate and the P35,000 salary bracket ceiling for the Employed Sector. However, it consolidated the two lowest salary brackets, resulting in a minimum annual rate of P2,400.
PhilHealth adjusted the minimum rates for members to P2,400 to ensure the financial sustainability of its program.
The high court also dropped then President Benigno Aquino III as a respondent in the case, citing the settled principle that a sitting head of state enjoys immunity from suit during his tenure.
In ruling against the petition, the high court said the petitioners availed themselves of the wrong remedy, explaining that certiorari is a remedy of last resort and available only when there is no appeal or any plain, speedy, and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law. Rey E. Requejo
“This Court does not have administrative supervision over administrative agencies, nor is it an entity engaged in making business decisions,” the high court said.
“We cannot interfere in purely administrative matters nor substitute administrative policies and business decisions with our own.”
The tribunal also held that even if the procedural issues were disregarded, the petitioners still failed to show that PhilHealth abused its authority in issuing its circulars.
On the contrary, PhilHealth acted with reasonable prudence and sensitivity to the public’s needs, having postponed the rate increase several times to relieve the public of the burden of simultaneous rate and price increases.