MANILA-The country’s more than six million senior citizens could now look forward to spending their robust years as bonafide members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) as President Aquino signed into law last week the measure granting automatic membership to them.
Under Republic Act (RA) 10645 otherwise known as “An Act Providing for the Mandatory PhilHealth Coverage for All Senior Citizens, Amending for the Purpose RA 7431, as Amended by RA 9994, Otherwise Known as the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010”, all that a senior citizen needs to do to avail of Philhealth benefits in a hospital is to present a valid ID proving his/her age.
“Magpakita lang sila ng ID bilang patunay na sila’y senior citizen at matatanggap na nila mula sa ospital ang karampatang benepisyong laan sa mga miyembro ng Philhealth,” Senate Pro Tempore Sen. Ralph G. Recto, main author of the measure, said.
“Health insurance can never be called universal if it does not cover all seniors. Enrolling them must be automatic, not optional. The ideal is that the minute they blow out the candles on their 60th birthday cake to the moment they breathe their last – they should be PhilHealth members,” Recto said in his sponsorship speech.
Recto lauded Malacanang and his colleagues in the Senate and House of Representatives for supporting the measure.
There are approximately 6.1 million senior citizens -- 60years old and above -- in the country today.
PhilHealth, as of December 2013, has 31.27 million registered members and 45.63 Million dependents totaling to 76.90 million Filipinos provided with Philhealth coverage.
In 2013, PhilHealth reported an income from premium contributions amounting to P62 billion, on top of the subsidy of P12.612 billion it received from the national government.
Correspondingly, for 2013, PhilHealth paid P55.559 billion in benefits payment.
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