February is National Health Insurance Month
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The month of February marks the country’s observance of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Month by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 1400 s. 2007, which underscores the important role of social health insurance in the life of every Filipino.
The National Health Insurance Program, as a social health insurance (SHI) scheme, helps to finance and manage health care based primarily on risk pooling. The SHI pools the health risks of the people on one hand and the contributions of individuals, households, enterprises, and the government on the other. This system protects people against financial overburden in cases of disease and is considered a relatively fair method of financing health care.
The NHIP is guided by the principle of social solidarity or community spirit, where risks are shared among income groups, age groups, persons of various health status and different geographic locations. This solidarity principle is best exemplified by the spirit of Bayanihan where everyone carries the goal of achieving a common vision, which in this case is to provide every Filipino with adequate financial protection when seeking medical care through everyone’s contributions, big or small.
The Bayanihan spirit is best demonstrated in the PhilHealth program where youngsters are given the chance to help the elderly, the healthy to subsidize the sick. Likewise, people with more than enough resources to spare can support those who are earning less. This is also where the able subsidizes the poor and vulnerable sectors such as senior citizens and persons with disabilities.
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), being the administrator of the National Health Insurance Program as provided for in Republic Act 7875 as amended, spearheads the nation’s observance in parallel with its 28th anniversary on February 14.
The theme for this year, “Pinalawak at mga Bagong Benepisyo para sa Mamamayang Filipino,” amplifies its commitment to continuously evolve and expand by making the benefits even more responsive to the changing medical care needs of the Filipino people.
The observance aims to stimulate public awareness on issues involving social health insurance and encourage partners in fulfilling their respective roles aimed at ensuring the success of the NHI program, i.e. Direct Contributors religiously paying their contributions, employers remitting and reporting their contributions on time, health care providers filing claims that are in order, among many others.
This is also an opportune time to inform the public of the essential role PhilHealth plays in each family’s health as well as how social health insurance work shields Filipinos against costly hospitalization. During the pandemic years alone, PhilHealth has paid a total of P307.70 billion in benefits for over 33.93 million claims filed on behalf of the members and their dependents.
To further raise awareness, PhilHealth is spearheading low-profile but high-impact activities such as a press conference to announce new and expanded healthcare benefits booked for rollout in 2023 and beyond, and a Social Health Insurance symposium involving internal and external stakeholders that showcases its various feats in the implementation of the NHIP, especially during the pandemic years.
The state insurer also enjoins government agencies, including local government units, the mass media, and the entire citizenry to support the celebration which is geared towards providing all Filipinos with equitable access to adequate, affordable, and acceptable health care services without resulting in financial difficulties, now and well into the future.
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Editor’s Note: This article was provided by Philhealth.