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| OFWs will pay Php3,600 in annua Philhealth contributions from next year |
By The SUN
Overseas Filipino workers will see their annual contribution to Philhealth rising by 50% by next year under the new law known as the Universal Health Care Act. From the current annual rate of Php2,400 OFWs will pay Php3,600 in 2020, and up to Php6,000 by 2024.
In addition, OFWs will be required to pay their Philhealth dues before they can obtain an overseas employment certificate, or OEC.
Militant Filipino workers in
Under the implementing rules and regulations
of Republic Act No. 11223, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration is mandated to ensure new hires or returning land-based
OFWs pay PhilHealth premiums before they are given OEC.
“This is utterly outrageous! The compulsory SSS contribution
is already a prerequisite to obtaining the OEC; why should the PhilHealth
contribution be an additional step? This is the height of greed,” Dolores
Balladares Pelaez, chairperson of United Filipinos in Hong
Kong (Unifil-Migrante HK), said in a press release on Oct 17.
“Duterte’s state exactions never end. Weighed down by the
current crisis in Hong Kong , OFWs' woes are
aggravated by the looming PhilHealth mandatory extortion,” she said.
She said that instead of providing health care protection to
OFWs who are suffering from severe afflictions due to their slave-like working
conditions, insufficient food, and other stressful factors, the Duterte
government is imposing more mandatory monetary burden.
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| Dolo Balladares Pelaez: "Enough is enough!" |
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By 2024, the income ceiling would be Php100,000 a month. Anyone
earning that much would need to shell out an annual premium of Php60,000.
Balladares Pelaez said once again, Duterte shows how
anti-OFWs he is. “He doesn’t care where we get the money to pay for these
exorbitant fees; what matters to him is the big collections that his department
can get,” she said.
The Unifil leader said that instead of squeezing OFWs, the government should have its Universal Health Care program subsidized by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.’s remittances,
and shares from sin tax revenues.
“OFWs have long been victimized by government agencies’ money-making
schemes and false promises of health care benefits,” Balladares Pelaez said.
“Enough is enough! We shall struggle against Duterte’s
PhilHealth and other mandatory state exactions and all other forms
of abuses and exploitation,” she concluded.
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