Labor group welcomes moratorium on Philhealth premium increase

Philippines Graphic
By Philippines Graphic

Share

The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) welcomed a memorandum from the Office of the President that holds in abeyance the scheduled increase in PhilHealth premium rates.

Signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, the memorandum puts on hold the increase of premium rate from 4% to 4.5% and an income ceiling from P80,000 to P90,000 for Calendar Year 2023 under Sec. 10 of Republic Act No. 11223 (Universal Health Care Act).

FFW President Sony Matula said that “were it not for this moratorium, a worker covered by collective bargaining agreement (CBA) earning P20,000 monthly, will have an increase in contribution from P800 to P900.”

The contribution is divided between the employer and the employee. Thus, the moratorium will save both parties P100, with the worker saving P50 from this.

“With the suspension, an employer with 100 workers earning P10,000 each will have reduced costs at P50 for each employee, or a total of P5,000 (P50 x 100) a month from operating expenses for Philhealth insurance,” Matula further said, adding that the  “though not that big as this is a light relief for employers and workers as we usher in 2023, it is still a welcome development,” Matula said.

FFW stated that it will continue to pursue wage increases through collective bargaining negotiations at the enterprise level, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards at the regional level and through legislation by Congress at the national level.

LABOR SUMMIT

“We are re-integrating our call with Nagkaisa and other labor groups, for a Labor Summit with President (Ferdinand Marcos Jr.) to discuss pressing labor issues, like wages, security of tenure, lay-off and retrenchment, union organizing, among others, before the coming of the ILO Tripartite mission in February,” the FFW president said.

Among the issues the FFW and Nagkaisa hopes to raise during the summit are:

1) Philhealth consultations with workers including OFWs from as many countries as possible, either physically or online, with the aim of developing a package suitable to the needs of the OFW abroad and to their families back home.

2) Congressional review and amendment of the law to make the status of being Direct Contributors as discretionary on the part of the OFWs, thereby giving flexibility for them to select which income level to declare based on their capability to pay and their desire to receive more benefits corresponding to their level of premium contribution;

3) Scrapping of the requirement of submission of proof of actual income for OFWs;

4) Trashing of the mandatory obligation of full premium payment as requirement for the issuance of the OEC for departing OFWs; and

5) Appointment of trade union representatives to the PhilHealth Board.

Website

Started in 1927, the Philippines Graphic is the longest-running printed magazine of national circulation that provides relevant news and features and promotes Philippine literature.

Table of contents [hide]

Read More

Cover

The peso paradox: Why more financially literate Filipinos are still struggling to build wealth

Malou Talosig-Bartolome -
On a payday morning somewhere in Bulacan, a mother walks into a sari-sari store clutching a handful of coins. She asks for a sachet of shampoo, P10-worth of cooking oil, and a...
Cover

Joaquin: In the nick of time

Psyche Roxas-Mendoza -
The country’s best writers and cultural institutions paid homage this year to the 100th anniversary of the late National Artist Nick Joaquin. Ironically, had Joaquin been around, he might never have allowed the tributes and accolades given in his honor. Or maybe, he would, but at great discomfort. Said writer Jose ‘Pete’ Lacaba, “Sinasabi sa amin ni Nick pag dumadalaw kami sa mga burol ‘ayaw ko ng mga tribute-tribute. Ibalot niyo na lang ako sa banig, itapon niyo ako sa Pasig River.’ Pero tinatanggap din naman niya pag binigyan siya ng award [Nick would tell us whenever we were in a wake, ‘I don’t like tributes. Just wrap me in a mat and throw me in the Pasig River. But he still would accept every time he is given an award].”
Cover

The World in the time of Nick Joaquin

Psyche Roxas-Mendoza -
Europe, the seat of everything that was grand, powerful, and prosperous, was caught in the teeth of the First World War, the year Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín was born on May 4, 1917. It was half a world away from a boy who would emerge half a century later as one of the greatest literary minds in a poor and exploited country still caught in its own, long drawn-out war of independence in 1917.
Cover

They who wrote for the Philippines Graphic

Graphic Editorial -
“Our sense ... of our country is a sustained act of imagination. From that vantage, it can be said that our writers and artists, who are men and women of imagination, create our country (italics mine). That is to say: they evoke those images of ourselves as we live life day and night, those images of ourselves which we share and by which we recognize our nativity. We are our own best interpreters of our history and culture because it is we who have lived through that history and created our own values by which we live.” —National Artist for Literature Gemino Abad