PhilHealth gets bulk of gov’t subsidy in July

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), a government-owned and/or -controlled corporation (GOCC) that administers the state’s health insurance program, cornered the bulk of subsidies given away by the national government in July.

The latest Bureau of Treasury data showed that of the P16.867 billion in subsidies granted to GOCCs in July, P15.114 billion or 89.6 percent was received by PhilHealth.

Last year, PhilHealth got P43.8 billion, the biggest amount of subsidies among GOCCs.
Next year, PhilHealth is also poised to get the largest chunk of subsidies worth P57.1 billion.

According to the latest data on the national treasury’s website, PhilHealth had 41.2 million members with 52.2 million dependents in 2016, bringing the total number of beneficiaries to 93.4 million or 91 percent of the projected 2016 population.

The GOCC subsidies in July, however, were only less than half of the P35.258 billion distributed in the same month last year.

The other GOCCs that received subsidies in July were the National Irrigation Administration (P978 million); Philippine Rice Research Institute (P337 million); People’s Television Network Inc. (P105 million); National Electrification Administration (P100 million); Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (P70 million); Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (P69 million); Philippine Heart Center (P38 million); Lung Center of the Philippines (P22 million); Philippine National Railways (P13 million); Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority (P13 million); Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (P5 million); and Southern Philippines Development Authority (P3 million).

The Governance Commission for GOCCs had said that up to 90 percent of the subsidies that state corporations receive were being spent on programs and projects, while the remainder covered operational expenses.  /kga