News
64% of RP Population Now Covered by PhilHealth - February 2, 2006
SIXTY four percent of the country’s population now enjoy
health insurance coverage under the Philippine Health Insurance
Corporation (PhilHealth).
In a pre-11th Anniversary media briefing held in Quezon City
recently, Lorna O. Fajardo, Officer-in-charge of the Office
of the PhilHealth President and CEO said that at the close of
2005, PhilHealth registered a total active membership base of
12.5 million members, or about 54 million beneficiaries nationwide.
"This represents about 64 percent of the entire RP population
of 85 million, bringing us closer to our goal of universal coverage,"
Fajardo said. She said that vigorous efforts at marketing the
National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) to the five major sectors
being served by PhilHealth, coupled by the national and local
governments’ support for the program, were the primary
factors for this unprecedented membership record. The five sectors
include the employed, the individually paying, the non-paying,
the sponsored and the overseas Filipino workers.
Fajardo added that the turnover of the Medicare program for
OFWs from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA)
also contributed significantly to the increase in membership
base. "Through our Overseas Workers Program, we were able
to enlist more than 700,000 members by year-end," she said.
Of the estimated 54.5M beneficiaries, 41 percent comes from
the private employed sector while about 24 percent comes from
the sponsored sector. The government employed sector accounts
for 15 percent while the individually paying sector accounts
for 14 percent. The OFW sector accounts for 4.9 percent of the
membership pie while the non-paying sector accounts for .6 percent
of the entire membership distribution.
To date, PhilHealth has the biggest membership base among all
other government social security agencies. It is open to self-employed
individuals, to retirees and pensioners, to OFWs, as well as
to indigent families whose coverage are sponsored by local government
units, private companies and individuals. On the other hand,
coverage is mandatory for government and private sector employees,
including household employees.