THE DEPARTMENT of Budget and Management (DBM) has approved the release of another P2.02 billion to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) for the National Government’s premium subsidy for indigent members this year.
In a statement on Monday, DBM said the fund covers the January to December period for 673,965 members who are identified as part of poor households through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).
The NHTS-PR is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor households are within each region.
DBM said it has so far released over P79.93 billion through three separate Special Allotment Release Orders for the insurance subsidy, which corresponds to various billings for medical treatments this year.
The total covers over 21.16 million indirect contributors, the department said.
“We are happy that before this year ends, we were able to cover the remaining subsidy for the health premiums of our kababayans (countrymen),” Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said in the statement.
Ms. Pangandaman added that the DBM has allocated over P100 billion for the implementation of the National Health Insurance Program for 2023. — Aaron Michael C. Sy