MANILA, Philippines — While admitting that their reserves will take a hit due to the suspension of collections of contributions, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on Tuesday assured that assistance for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients will not be affected. PhilHealth President Ricardo Morales said that a P30-billion budget, set aside specifically for COVID-19 response, was prepared to assist patients afflicted with the disease. Morales said that aside from the P30-billion budget for COVID-19 response, the agency also has current accounts that can be converted into cash equivalent to another P30 billion. Although we anticipated this—actually we did not get the budget that we asked from Congress—we did not anticipate, nobody anticipated COVID-19. Our reserves are going to take a hit,” Morales said when asked if the suspension of collections of contributions will affect their reserves.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer May 05, 2020 02:35 UTC