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Kinundena ng Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research o EILER ang hindi pagbibigay ng pondo sa Philippine Health Insurance Corporation o PhilHealth para sa taong 2025.
Ayon sa EILER, pagpapakita ito sa patuloy na pagsuporta ng pamahalaan sa pribadong sektor at mga business tycoon kapalit ng health care ng mahihirap na Pilipino.
“Defunding PhilHealth is a textbook example of neoliberalism. The government applies a hands-off approach on a very basic right of Filipinos: healthcare. Additionally, the budget allocations for the education and labor departments have also been cut. In contrast, the government will spend a big chunk of the budget to attract investments and ease doing business through an allocation of PhP 1.1 trillion to infrastructure projects. This allotment is even larger than the allocation for DepEd (PhP 737 billion) and Department of Health (PhP 277 billion) combined,” ayon sa mensahe ng EILER.
Iminungkahi ng EILER na sa halip na putulin ang suporta sa PhilHealth ay dapat alisin na ang intelligence fund na napupunta lamang sa katiwalian.
Ayon sa EILER, ang intelligence fund ay nagagamit katulad ng National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) ang pondo sa red-tagging.
Iginiit ng EILER na nararapat pagtuunan ng pansin ng pamahalaan at mga mambabatas ang social services at social protection.
“The public financing of social services and social protection should also be prioritized. Decades of neoliberal approach in budgeting has only resulted in a health crisis where Filipinos cannot afford healthcare and medical services, hence, must resort to begging assistance from local and national politicians. The government must exact the ultra-rich individuals and big corporations with higher taxes to publicly finance social services for all. In 2021 alone, the income of the richest 10% families is almost as large as the income of the poorest 50% families in the country.” ayon pa sa mensahe ng PhilHealth.
Hindi inaprubahan ng kongreso ang 150-billion pesos na budget ng PHILHEALTH sa halip ay inatasan ito na ubusin muna ng PhilHealth ang 600-bilyong pisong reserve funds.
Naunang kinuwestiyon ang 138-million pesos na pondo ng PHILHEALTH na ginamit sa Christmas party.(
