TINGOG party-list Rep. Rep. Jude Acidre has called on the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to increase its coverage by 20 percent across-the-board.
Acidre said PhilHealth’s case rate system was introduced to simplify the reimbursement process for healthcare providers and ensure timely and sufficient financial support to patients.
“However, it has been noted that the case rates have been continuously misaligned with the rising costs of healthcare services in the country,” Acidre said.
The practice of “pay whichever is lower” in the current case rate system puts the patients in additional financial burden as this often forces them to pay a large portion of the hospital bills even after availing themselves of their PhilHealth benefits.
Acidre said his proposal aims to eliminate the out-of-pocket expenses of patients and align benefits with the rising costs of healthcare services, thereby avoiding to trigger to inflationary surge in prices.
“In addition, the proposed solution opens quality healthcare access for all which calls for partnership among PhilHealth, healthcare providers and other medical facilities. The call for price stability commitments from healthcare providers and facilities aims to maintain market stability,” Acidre said.
He added that the approach is deemed to set off a more sustainable and accessible quality healthcare system for every Filipino citizen.