By PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA — The Senate approved on second reading the proposed mandatory enrollment of senior citizens in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
Authored by Senate Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senate Bill 712 seeks to have all senior citizens covered by PhilHealth whether or not they are indigent.
Recto believes that PhilHealth coverage becomes “universal” only if it includes all lolos and lolas aged 60 years old and above.
“Enrolling them must be automatic, not optional,” he stressed. “The ideal is that from the minute they blow out the candles on their 60th birthday cakes to the moment they breathe their last, they should be PhilHealth members.”
Of the 6.1 million senior citizens in the country, only 3.9 million are PhilHealth members, recent government records showed.
Recto earlier said enrolling all senior citizens in the country will not put PhilHealth under a “financial ICU.”
PhilHealth has P116 billion in reserves and P62 billion in earnings as of December last year, the senator claimed.
Recto said he expects the bill to be passed on third and final reading before Congress goes on break next week./PN
