4th district has highest number of PhilHealth beneficiaries in RP
THE fourth congressional district now has the most number of PhilHealth card holders in the country with 23,039 beneficiaries, mostly belonging to indigent families, Ernesto Beltran, PhilHealth regional manager, told The PUNCH.
Every card holder, including up to six other family members, are entitled to free hospitalization benefits from government clinics and hospitals.
The distribution of PhilHealth cards in the district is as follows: Dagupan City, 5,580; San Fabian, 5,413; Manaoag, 5,164; Mangaldan, 3,935; and San Jacinto, 2,947. Most of the beneficiaries are tricycle and jeepney drivers, barangay health workers, and barangay tanods, among other under-privileged.
House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., the district’s congressional representative and main author of the law that created PhilHealth and the Philippine Health Insurance Commission, was in Dagupan City on November 4 to distribute another 1,000 Philhealth cards.
Another 1,000 cards will be given in the next two weeks here, he said.
Based on PhilHealth records, an additional 1,137 is currently being processed, and existing cards are already being sorted out for renewal next year.
De Venecia expressed pride over this health insurance program, which is patterned after the systems in more developed countries like the United States, Japan, Germany, and Canada.
He added that the goal is to eventually have 65 to 70 million Filipinos across the country covered by this health insurance. — EVA
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