Rebuild PhilHealth funds, gov’t told after SC ruling

AHEALTH reform advocate on Sunday urged the government to fully restore the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.s (PhilHealth) depleted reserves in the proposed 2026 national budget, following a Supreme Court (SC) ruling that ordered the return of P60 billion earlier transferred to the National Treasury.

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“The government must now act decisively to correct the injustice by returning the P60 billion, with interest, to PhilHealth,” Anthony “Tony” C. Leachon said in a Facebook post. “Restitution is not merely compliance with the court — it is justice, stewardship and respect for the millions of Filipinos who depend on PhilHealth for survival.”

He called the unanimous ruling a “moral victory” but said the restitution must be complete, clearly earmarked and aligned with the Universal Health Care (UHC) law. He urged lawmakers to include all unreleased and diverted funds in the 2026 General Appropritions Act to protect the sustainability of health coverage.

The 2025 budget removed the entire P74.431-billion subsidy to PhilHealth that had been proposed in the National Expenditure Program. That amount was supposed to fund P53.134 billion in insurance premiums for indirect contributors, P21.17 billion for benefit upgrades under the UHC law and P121.17 million for community beneficiaries. PhilHealth kept these programs running by drawing from its reserves.

For 2026, the Executive Branch proposed a P53.262-billion subsidy taken mainly from sin tax collections. The House of Representatives later added P60 billion on President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr’s instruction, raising the proposed allocation in the spending bill to P113.262 billion.

Mr. Leachon said even this higher figure is not enough to rebuild Phil-Health’s buffers after the 2025 cuts and the voided fund transfer.