by Jocelyn P. Alvarez
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Dec. 12 (PIA9) - - The national government is bent on implementing starting next year the new PhilHealth insurance sponsorship policy involving local government units (LGUs) nationwide.
The new policy makes the National Housing Targeting System (NHTS) survey result as the government’s data base for the identification of eligible Phil Health insurance beneficiaries.
LGU sponsored PhilHealth insurance beneficiary is entitled to a one-year health insurance for P1,200, of which the LGU shoulders the P600 while the national government shoulders the remaining P600.
It can be recalled, the NHTS survey was done in 2009 purposely to identify the poorest of the poor and the government is set to use the NHTS list in the national sponsorship program starting 2012.
City Information Officer Sheila Covarrubias said “with the implementation and the city’s compliance to the new policy, some 20,000 beneficiaries of the city government’s PhilHealth insurance program are set to lose their benefits starting January 2012.
The city, at present, has 25,792 total number of PhilHealth insurance beneficiaries.
The new policy also seeks to increase the insurance sponsorship from P1,200 per beneficiary to P2, 400 in the coming years, which means that each beneficiary will have bigger/higher amount allotted for them for their health insurance. (JPA/PIA9)