Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 19) — Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said the proposed transfer of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) supervision to the Office of the President (OP) will make things more efficient in the government health insurer.
“It’s a management thing. If you want to make something more efficient,” he told reporters on Monday.
“If they’re trying to think about this, I think the president wants to have better and more efficient health care financing. Kasi gusto niyang tutukan. ‘Di ba you put it under the president, mas madaling matutukan,” Herbosa added.
[Translation: If they’re trying to think about this, I think the president wants to have better and more efficient health care financing. Because the president wants to focus on it. Don’t you place it with the president if you want that to happen?]The DOH earlier said its technical working group (TWG) is seeking the legal opinion of the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies on the matter.
On May 17, then DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the agency formed a TWG to evaluate the proposed transfer. PhilHealth is an attached agency to the DOH.
Herbosa said moving an attached agency under another body like the Office of the President is not new in government. However, he clarified that changes to be made within PhilHealth is up to Congress since it has to amend the law that created the body. “What I’ve heard from the Office of the President is the Executive Branch is free to realign where the agency is and who will manage it,” he said. “If the president and the Executive branch wants to put it under the Office of the President, pwede yun [that can be done],” Herbosa explained. He cited recent calls to move the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council under the OP.
