ANAKALUSUGAN Party-list Rep. Ray T. Reyes is pushing to realign the excess funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) to finance the construction of more hospitals and health centers.
This after the House Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday approved House Bill 9513 which seeks to allow the government to tap excess revenues of Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) to fund items under the unprogrammed funds in the General Appropriations Act.
“We are proposing to realign what is given to Philhealth to be returned for the construction of much needed hospitals at nang hindi sa mga malalaking bonuses ng kanilang executives napupunta ang pondo na para sa ating healthcare system,” Reyes said.
“Based on their guidelines, dapat mga P200 billion lang ang reserve nila. Right now they are at more than P400 billion. Imagine how many hospitals at health centers mapapagawa sa 200 billion,” he added.
Reyes said AnaKalusugan is also studying if Philhealth’s excess budget can be realigned to fund the hiring of medical professionals or improve the salary rates of government medical personnel to make it more competitive.
“I think we all can agree na mas deserve ng ating mga healthcare workers ang umento sa sahod at benepisyo,” he said.
“We cannot afford to scrape or scramble for crumbs left by brain drain when the country is hit by the next pandemic,” he added.
Under House Bill 9513, the funds of GOCCs determined to be in excess of their current administrative and operational expenses, benefit obligations, or reserve requirements, may be used to implement the vital purposes under the unprogrammed appropriations.
Meanwhile, under the current laws, unprogrammed appropriations in the national budget are only funded by the following:
• Excess revenue collection in any non-tax revenue source from its corresponding revenue collection target as reflected in the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing;
• New revenue collection or those arising from new tax or non-tax sources which are not part of, nor included in, the original revenue sources reflected in the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing; and
• Approved loans for foreign-assisted projects.
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