Health groups push Congress to boost PhilHealth funding, curb MAIFIP expansion

In Manila, a coalition of roughly 70 medical societies and health-worker groups organized by the Healthcare Professionals Alliance After COVID-19 (HPAAC) criticized the House of Representatives’ Budget Amendments Review Subcommittee (BARSc) for not recommending an increase to the 2027 Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) budget, which remains at 74.4 billion pesos in the House version. The subcommittee proposed adding 24.97 billion pesos to the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program, raising its allocation to 49.19 billion pesos, and suggested modest hikes for other Department of Health initiatives.

HPAAC warned that PhilHealth could run out of funds by March and urged Congress to release 311 billion pesos of accumulated resources and to restore at least 244 billion pesos to fully implement benefit expansions and cover projected claims. Advocates fear insufficient funding could delay hospital payments and leave remote areas underserved. They plan to take the issue to the Senate, hoping upper-chamber lawmakers will scale back MAIFIP funding, though they caution that the bicameral conference may still endorse higher allocations, as happened in the previous budget cycle.