• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
AGRI party-list Rep. Wilbert Lee urged the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to expand the benefits of its members given its enormous P466 billion worth of investible funds and P68.4 billion net income.
While he lauded PhilHealth for the 30 percent increase in health benefit packages, Lee, who met with Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez before his speaking engagement at a hotel in Bacolod City, called on the agency to expand the healthcare services.
“(As much as possible), we want 100 percent coverage,” the lawmaker said, adding that PhilHealth can do it and even expand the benefits as he also noted an increase in premium set by the state insurer for its members.
Lee earlier filed House Resolution No. 1407, urging the PhilHealth to update and increase its coverage by 30 percent, pointing out that its case rate is no longer responsive to the hospitalization cost of beneficiaries as this has not been adjusted for over a decade now, which the state insurer complied with on Feb. 14.
“In the case of cancer, we know that the treatment cannot be done in installments. We want to make it unlimited and what needs to be treated for cancer, PhilHealth needs to answer all that,” he said.
Lee also reported that the PhilHealth breast cancer coverage for its members rose to P1.4 million, from P100,000. | GB
