“We firmly believe in empowering our members and this can only be achieved by providing them with the latest information that is accurate, complete and timely.”

Thus said Alexander A. Padilla, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), as the government agency marked its 21st Anniversary with a corporate event held at the Chardonnay by Astoria in Pasig City recently.

One avenue that PhilHealth undertakes to empower its members is the conduct of the Social Health Insurance Education Series (SHInES) to further educate PhilHealth’s key stakeholders on various aspects of the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP).

Recently, PhilHealth entered into an agreement with the Philippine Government Employees Association (PGEA) for the conduct of SHInES among government employees to ensure that appropriate information and updates on PhilHealth and the NHIP will be cascaded properly.

The PGEA is an organization of government employees’ unions in the country.

The agreement espouses that the proposed orientation in government offices through the Public Sector Union-PhilHealth advocates is to make government workers become active partners and effectively participate in the NHIP in a well-informed and responsible manner. “The agreement is not only an issue of responsibility to the government but also a critical task to serve and protect the workers who are the contributing members of PhilHealth,” Esperanza S. Ocampo, PGEA National President said. PGEA as a public sector organization has the innate responsibility to assist any government institution to ensure that quality public service will be delivered.

The joint agreement provides a venue that will gather and consolidate selected public sector union leaders who will be trained to become advocates of employees’ protection programs and of PhilHealth. “With this agreement, PhilHealth was able to tap one of the biggest potential resources that can help strengthen the program and make it more attuned with the needs of workers in the public sector. More importantly, these information multipliers can readily become program advocates who can help spread the good news that is PhilHealth,” Ocampo said. END (Amelita L. Buted)