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Monday, December 7, 2015

What's Up With Philhealth?

A quick look at my posts from last year shows that a lot of people read my article about the issue with Philhealth last year not being able to pay the hospitals their due, subsequently resulting with hospitals threatening not to honor Philhealth deduction from their medical bills.

I am glad to be able to say that this has been resolved. In fact, I was even able to use my benefits when I gave birth last October 2014!

Since then, there hasn't been any major news for Philhealth, with everybody else focusing on tanim-bala modus, the upcoming elections and the never ending traffic here in the metro. But why should we join Philhealth anyway? Let me give you a few reasons why I think we should never forget to contribute to Philhealth:

1. It serves as your emergency hospitalization fund.

Yes, I know the amount subsidized by Philhealth is not very high. But for me, every single peso saved is worthwhile. You can be paying as high as Php5,520.00 per year for your contributions, or as low as Php1,200.00 - but look at what you can get in hospitalization benefits!

Philhealth has put up a search engine on their website where you can check how much your hospital deductions could be. You can check it out at this link. It's not very easy to use, but at least it's a start! I made a sample search for cancer, and I came out with up to Php32,000 in benefits from hospitalization fees to professional fees.

2. Philhealth covers a wide range of ailments

For a list of Philhealth's coverage, you can check out their summary list here. There's quite a lot of it, and majority of it is related to hospitalization, but that's what Philhealth is for. Philhealth was established to provide medical insurance for its members.

3. You can't benefit from an HMO membership (health maintenance organization) without beign a member of Philhealth.

Many companies nowadays provide membership to HMOs as additional medical support for their employees. However, many of these organizations stipulate that their benefits may only be availed after benefits for Philhealth has been exhausted. They also charge fees if their member is not a Philhealth member.

4. Contributing to Philhealth helps support our senior citizens medical needs.

Senior citizens can register for lifetime membership with Philhealth, and they get the same benefits as regular members, without having to pay the premium.

This may sound unfair to us paying young'uns, but this is a very big help for the older generation. It's also a big help to us who help support our elders. Like I said in #1, I believe every peso saved is worthwhile!

Do you have other reasons for contributing to Philhealth? Feel free to share with us your reasons and encourage everybody to join Philhealth!