{"id":17865,"date":"2025-12-14T01:21:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T17:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/?p=17865"},"modified":"2025-12-14T02:43:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T18:43:35","slug":"zero-balance-billing-only-possible-with-fully-funded-philhealth-sen-pia-cayetano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/2025\/12\/14\/zero-balance-billing-only-possible-with-fully-funded-philhealth-sen-pia-cayetano\/","title":{"rendered":"ZERO-BALANCE BILLING ONLY POSSIBLE WITH FULLY FUNDED PHILHEALTH \u2013 SEN. PIA CAYETANO"},"content":{"rendered":"

SENATOR Pia S. Cayetano stressed that the Zero-Balance Billing (ZBB) policy might just work as intended should the billions in legally earmarked PhilHealth funds be properly allocated to the agency.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf PhilHealth were given every peso intended for it, the promise of Zero-Balance Billing would not be limited to a few hospitals. It could be a real, functioning guarantee for every Filipino patient,\u201d Cayetano said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her statement follows the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on the illegal transfer of P60 billion in PhilHealth funds to the National Treasury in 2024. Explaining her reservations during the third reading of the 2026 GAA, Cayetano said, \u201cThis is not a matter of an unfunded law. This is earmarked. So saan napunta \u2018yun? What is clear is that the Sin Tax Reform Act of 2019 (RA 11346) earmarks the proceeds of the sin tax for Philhealth. If this is not delivered to Philhealth, I do not want this body to be complicit in this act.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The senator said that while the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling is a welcome correction, it also highlights a deeper problem: even with the ruling, much remains to be fixed both in the budget and in the way the budget is put together.<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the 2026 budget deliberations, she presented the deficits in sin tax allocations earmarked for PhilHealth from 2023 to 2026, amounting to \u20b1129.96 billion:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 –\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>2023: \u20b183.9B was earmarked, only \u20b179B appeared in the GAA (\u20b14.9B deficit)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0–\u00a0 2024: \u20b179.01B was earmarked, only \u20b140.28B made it to the GAA (\u20b138.73B deficit)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 –\u00a0 2025: \u20b169.81B was earmarked, but the bicameral conference committee removed the allocation entirely (\u20b169.81B deficit)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0–\u00a0 \u00a02026: \u20b169.78B is earmarked, but only \u20b153.26B is in the NEP (\u20b116.52B potential deficit)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cayetano also pointed out that \u20b1106.95 billion in PCSO and PAGCOR revenues were legally intended for PhilHealth between 2019 and 2025, on top of the \u20b160 billion covered by the Supreme Court ruling. \u201cThese gaps are not technicalities,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are the reason ZBB has not become fully operational.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

PhilHealth has estimated that it needs at least \u20b1147 billion more to subsidize indirect contributors and achieve ZBB coverage across DOH hospitals, specialty institutions, and LGU facilities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot celebrate the Supreme Court ruling and then continue underfunding PhilHealth in the very same budget cycle,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we want Zero-Balance Billing to work, we must restore every peso legally intended for the health of our people \u2014 and fix the process that keeps taking those pesos away.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SENATOR Pia S. Cayetano stressed that the Zero-Balance Billing (ZBB) policy might just work as intended should the billions in legally earmarked PhilHealth funds be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17865"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17867,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17865\/revisions\/17867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}