Agri Party-list Rep. Wilbert Lee on Monday urged the Benefits Committee (BenCom) of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to immediately convene for the implementation of increases in essential benefit packages.

Lee issued the call after the Department of Health (DOH), which leads the BenCom, announced the increase in the hemodialysis package rate from PHP4,000 to PHP6,350 per session.

“We thank the DOH and PhilHealth for heeding our call to increase the coverage in medical treatments like hemodialysis. But our question is: why are increases done on a piecemeal basis?” Lee said in Filipino in a news release.

“If the DOH, through BenCom, can promptly convene and increase certain PhilHealth benefit packages, why can’t it be done with the coverage of other case rates with their enormous available funds?,” he added.

Lee was among the legislators from both the House of Representatives and the Senate who were frustrated over the long overdue increase of essential benefit packages of PhilHealth.

Citing PhilHealth’s financial report, Lee said as of March 2024, the state health insurer has around PHP612 billion, of which PHP467 billion are reserve funds, and PHP374 billion in investible funds.

“With the hundreds of billions of PhilHealth funds, PhilHealth should immediately implement increased coverages of other major diseases and costly hospital operations,” he said.

He said these include cancer treatment, coronary artery disease, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) scan, CT scan, maternity care, dental care, eye care, emergency care, and comprehensive outpatient benefit package, among others.

Lee earlier filed House Resolution 2015, urging DOH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa Jr. to convene the BenCom.

In the interest of transparency and accountability, Lee urged that the discussion of the BenCom must be livestreamed so that the public can stay informed about what’s transpiring in the deliberation of their entitlements and benefits in PhilHealth.

“The present discussions are where to invest or use the excess funds of PhilHealth. This should not be debated: Funds for healthcare should be used for healthcare,” he said.

“Medicines and treatment should be shouldered by the government to ease our countrymen’s fear that they would be mired further in debt and poverty if they got sick because they don’t have the means to buy medicines or pay the hospital bill. This is everybody’s fight, let’s do it now.” (PNA)