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The Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s (PhilHealth) bared that the state–run insurer expecting a net loss of P57 billion in 2021, may lead to its collapse by 2027.

PhilHealth’s Acting Senior Vice President Neri Santiago disclose these figures upon the questioning of Marikina Representative Stella Quimbo, during a hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability following the delay of payments of hospital claims.

“The estimated actuarial life for now is until 2027… That means na the reserves, considering ‘yung mare-receive na collections as against sa benefit payouts, it will only last until 2027,” Santiago stressed.

Santiago said the actuarial life is based on projections but noted that it can still change due to different factors.

“The assumption that is in the projection will depend on the subsidy coming from the government with respect to the premium contribution for the indirect distributors. It will also depend on the rollout of benefit enhancement in the future so marami pong dependencies ‘yung actuarial life,” she said.

Santiago further said that PhilHealth is expecting a net loss for 2021.
“Ang projected na net income natin for 2021 is actually a net loss. Ang net loss po na ine-expect natin for 2021 is about P57 billion,” she noted.

However, Quimbo questioned why PhilHealth could lose such a huge amount.

PhilHealth has P87.7-billion premium contribution collections from January to June this year, according to Emily Roque, the agency’s acting senior vice president for the fund management sector. She said that there were P52.3 billion paid and approved benefit payouts for the same period.

“‘Yung ganung kasimpleng accounting, collections minus benefit payout, ay clearly positive naman. Meron kang P32 billion kulang-kulang for January to June na excess. Hindi pa natin nilalagay dyan ang investment income, etc. We are clearly doing okay, tama? Ano ang dahilan kung bakit mamamatay na ang PhilHealth sa taong 2027?” asked Quimbo.

“Hindi katanggap-tanggap ‘yung idea na mamamatay na ang PhilHealth in 2027. That’s not an acceptable idea, and from January to June malaki pa ang kita natin, and in fact if you will continue to collect as much of what you collected last year which is P149 billion, that means you will collect, say P50 billion in the next six months. So hindi ko talaga maisip kung paano ang ending natin sa 2021 ay net loss of P51 billion,” the lawmaker added.

Quimbo then asked PhilHealth officials to submit their projections to the committee. Santiago vowed to submit an elaboration of their projections.