Tag: PhilHealth

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Lacson Asks: Why Did Senate and House Allow the Illegal P74B Realignment of PhilHealth Subsidy in 2025 GAA?

Why did lawmakers allow the scrapping of P74 billion for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) when they knew it was illegal?

Sen. Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson raised this question on Monday as he noted the realignment of the P74 billion in the GAA effectively amended the Sin Tax Law, violating the principle that a general law cannot amend a special law.

“(The) GAA is a general law. And the sin tax law is a special law. And any lawyer will tell you, or any member of Congress will tell you that a general law cannot amend a special law. In other words, what the Senate did and what the House did was illegal,” Lacson, an eagle-eyed watchdog of the budget, said in his interjection of Sen. JV Ejercito’s privilege speech about the Universal Health Care Act.

In Filipino: Tanong ni Lacson: Bakit Pumayag ang Senado at Kamara sa Ilegal na P74B Realignment ng PhilHealth Subsidy sa 2025 GAA?

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Ping Lacson Pushes Barangay-Level Health Care System in PH

STA. ROSA CITY, Laguna – Former Sen. Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson on Saturday pushed for the full and proper implementation of the Universal Health Care Act, so the Philippines can have a barangay-level health care system that can at least approximate the efficient health care system in Cuba.

Lacson said this can be done by ensuring the proper funding of the UHC Act, such that it will cover all Filipinos in all barangays – even as he said the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) may not be able to give 100 percent free health benefits to Filipinos.

“You know me as a watchdog of the budget. I scrutinize it to help make sure that the laws we pass like the UHC, Free Tertiary Education Act, and other laws passed by Congress do not get paralyzed due to lack of funding,” he said in Filipino at the press conference of the Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial slate here.

“We want to make sure the UHC Act covers all barangays. When we are stuck at the low end, we are just having pilot programs in selected barangays. But when we go to full implementation, we cover all barangays,” he added.

Related: Ping Lacson, Nais ang Barangay Level Health Care System

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Making Noise on the 2025 Budget Makes Sense After All

If there is one amendment in the 2025 GAA that is worth mentioning, Congress has rectified a legally flawed provision under the 2024 GAA by deleting Special Provision (d) under the Unprogrammed Appropriations which allowed the executive branch to realign “excess PhilHealth funds” to the National Treasury.

This bars the Department of Finance from gobbling up PhilHealth funds in 2025. This may have also rendered the pending SC petitions on this particular issue moot and academic.

Making noise makes sense after all.

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Speech at the San Pedro Calungsod Medical Center’s Thanksgiving Night

At the outset, allow me to confess – I never imagined that being in a room full of doctors would be this pleasant and comforting. Because normally, in most scenarios where one is surrounded by all sorts of medical professionals, kakabahan ka na!

Kidding aside, I feel fortunate today, not only because I am surrounded by hardworking doctors, but even more so because around me are the best ones from the San Pedro Calungsod Medical Center – the very hospital I had the honor of being one of the original founders, and which I have supported since its founding a decade ago.

Truly, a lot has transpired since the day the idea of establishing an additional medical facility in the urban municipality of Kawit, Cavite was first conceived.

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Ping: ‘Unfinished Business’ in the Senate, PhilHealth Funds and OVP Budget

In an interview on ANC, Ping Lacson answers questions on:
* ‘Unfinished business’ in the Senate
* PhilHealth Funds and the OVP budget
* Political dynasties

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