DOH, PhilHealth chiefs worry over cuts in proposed budgets

MANILA, Philippines — Steep cuts made by Malacañang in the proposed 2027 budgets of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) may hobble hospital expansion efforts and strain state-backed health insurance coverage, officials said on Wednesday.

The DOH requested a spending plan of P837 billion for next year, but the Department of Budget and Management slashed it by more than half to P353.8 billion in the P7.2-trillion National Expenditure Program submitted to Congress.

At a House hearing on the DOH budget, acting Health Secretary Edwin Mercado said the reduction could delay plans to expand public hospital capacity by 15,000 beds by 2028, from the current total of around 30,000 beds.

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“Because of the cut in the HFEP, the target may be delayed unless we reinstate what we are asking for,” Mercado told lawmakers, referring to the department’s Health Facilities Enhancement Program, whose budget is down to P14 billion from P29 billion.

Funds earmarked for the program are geared toward improving existing health facilities and constructing new ones.

PhilHealth subsidy, too

On top of HFEP’s budget slash, the agency’s hospital operations funding also took an P11-billion cut, and its subsidy for PhilHealth saw a drastic reduction from P379 billion to P73 billion, according to Mercado.

PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Beverly Lorraine Ho said their requested budget to subsidize claims of indirect contributors is a “gap” that could dig into its finances.

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Ho said the state-run health insurer expects to pay out about P240 billion in hospital claims from indirect contributors.

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“This means that if we provide the same amount of benefits with the same rate of utilization next year, we are also expecting at the minimum P244 billion in payouts for indirect contributors,” she said.

Mercado said PhilHealth may find it difficult to sustain its roster of benefit packages if government subsidy falls below the request, as the insurer seeks to expand its perks to lower out-of-pocket medical costs.

“It may be that we cannot lay out or roll out the programmed benefits,” he said in Filipino. “We can still sustain it for now. But within two to three years, we may not be able to continue unless subsidies for indirect members are increased.”

‘A direct threat’

Also on Wednesday, the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) warned that the reduction in the DOH’s spending plan posed a “direct threat to the delivery of essential health services.”

For instance, it said that slicing a huge chunk of P33.9 billion will affect the operations of 72 DOH hospitals, and another P5.4 billion will take its toll on four specialty hospitals.

These are the Philippine Heart Center, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Lung Center of the Philippines, and Philippine Children’s Medical Center.

“Instead of strengthening the public healthcare system and providing hospitals with the resources they need to deliver quality healthcare, the government is proposing a drastic P39.3-billion combined budget cut,” AHW secretary general Cristy Donguines said in a statement.

“These cuts will further weaken an already ailing public healthcare system and put the health and lives of millions of Filipinos at risk,” she added.

AHW also noted that public hospitals are already experiencing “chronic shortages of health workers, overcrowded facilities, inadequate and aging equipment, and insufficient medicines and medical supplies.”

Reducing the budget for the hospitals, the group said, will worsen such “long-standing problems” and “compromise” the delivery of healthcare services to the “growing number of patients” that need treatment.

Surging cases

The group also noted that the country is currently facing a surge in cases of leptospirosis, other water-borne diseases, influenza-like illnesses, and dengue.

It added that many Filipinos are also dying from other illnesses such as ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases.

“At a time when Filipinos urgently need stronger and more accessible public health services, it is deeply alarming that healthcare continues to receive far less funding than infrastructure spending,” Donguines said.

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She pointed to the P644-billion allocation for the Department of Public Works and Highways to cite a disparity. /das