PhilHealth rate increase for foreigners

[OnMyWay]

Tuka started this thread way back in Feb and we have all been interpreting what the new policy said, what has actually happened, what Philhealth has told a few of us, and what the future holds.  I re-read the entire thread and it is a bit funny how many times some of us, including me, changed course with our opinions as more information was gathered.  

This is my latest interpretation...

I think Mike J had it about right in his first post which he then retracted.    Jack P later said about the same.  What they said seems to be what is actually happening.

-  If you were a dependent on your Filipino wife's plan before July 1, 2017, you are grandfathered in and are still a dependent on your wife's plan.  Why do I think this?  Because that is my situation and I have made a claim without issue.  Regarding expiration of policies, I don't think that concept is correct.  There are no policies.  You are a "member" or a dependent of a member.  The premium payments (for informal economy members) are on a monthly or quarterly or annual basis and may change as time goes on.  As some have done, you can pre-pay future premiums (up to 3 years?), locking in the current rate.  As long as you make your correct premium payments by the due date, there is no "expiration" in Philhealth.  Your payments may lapse and you might not be covered for a time, but there are ways to fix that. 

-  After July 1, if you join as an expat member, you will pay the new, higher premiums.

-  After July 1, if your wife tries to add you as a dependent, she will be told that you can't be added and need to join on your own as a member.

-  If you were an expat member before July 1, like AlwaysRt, I'm not sure what the standing is.  Have any expat members who were paying old rates before July 1 been asked to pay the higher rates or go away?  I have not seen that posted.  The quarterly payment would have been due September 30th, 2017.  AlwaysRt has prepaid but have others attempted to make a quarterly payment due September 30th?

Again, my latest interpretation!

[Jollygoodfellow]

DISCLAIMER :The opinions and facts are subject to change in this topic.  

[AlwaysRt]

 

3 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

If you were a dependent on your Filipino wife's plan before July 1, 2017, you are grandfathered in and are still a dependent on your wife's plan.  Why do I think this?  Because that is my situation and I have made a claim without issue.  Regarding expiration of policies, I don't think that concept is correct.  There are no policies.

I was not disagreeing with your interpretation, I was suggesting asking Philhealth for clarity on if and/or when they will remove you for your wife's policy and get your own. 

In the meantime we are generally treated the same. Your wife's policy is up to date and you have been and still are covered by it. (100% confirmed by you using it since July 1st 2017). I went to the Philhealth office and discussed the options with them in june 2017. This resulted in me paying the maximum 3 years advance premium (I actually paid for 2 1/2 years at the time as I had renewed Dec '16 and was already paid through Dec '17).  So my case is 99% confirmed as it is straight from the Philhealth office but not verified by actually using it.

*totally off topic - I just received confirmation of my Asawa's enrollment in ChampVA - a Tricare like policy for dependents of qualifying US Disabled Vets. If any Vets are interested in more information we can start another topic to talk about it.

[bigpearl]

On 22/06/2017 at 12:01 PM, Dave Hounddriver said:

Mod's permission 

Feel free to share any general information or web sites from Pacific Cross but (as a mod) I am reluctant to say carte blance that you could give contact info to an expat who is an agent for Pacific Cross.  Why?  Because there are certain former members and even new members who have been banned or put on moderation when they appear to be getting free advertising from this site and contributing nothing back.

So the information is HUGELY helpful and welcome whereas the individual agent would need to be approved by JGF, in advance, before posting his name or contact info.  Hope that helps!

That was long winded mate.

Cheers, Steve.

[Dave Hounddriver]

5 minutes ago, bigpearl said:

That was long winded mate.

Cheers, Steve

Yeah, we got some retired politicians as members here and I gotta try to keep 'em happy.  Its a tough job. 

[bigpearl]

1 minute ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Yeah, we got some retired politicians as members here and I gotta try to keep 'em happy.  Its a tough job. 

Sure.

[OnMyWay]

29 minutes ago, AlwaysRt said:

I was not disagreeing with your interpretation, I was suggesting asking Philhealth for clarity on if and/or when they will remove you for your wife's policy and get your own. 

Yes, I know.  I don't want to open a can of worms by talking to them.  I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope it will not blow up on it's own at some future date.  

[AlwaysRt]

3 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

Yes, I know.  I don't want to open a can of worms by talking to them.  I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope it will not blow up on it's own at some future date.  

That is certainly an understandable position to take. Hopefully it continues to work out in your favor - same with others I know of that are covered just like you are. 

[Tukaram (Tim)]

15 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

-  If you were a dependent on your Filipino wife's plan before July 1, 2017, you are grandfathered in and are still a dependent on your wife's plan.  Why do I think this?  Because that is my situation and I have made a claim without issue. 

That does seem to be how it is working - it is certainly not the way the new rules are written.  I like this interpretation better, so I am not complaining ha ha 

[hk blues]

On 14/12/2017 at 6:58 AM, Tukaram (Tim) said:

That does seem to be how it is working - it is certainly not the way the new rules are written.  I like this interpretation better, so I am not complaining ha ha 

I like the interpretation too. But, as it's an interpretation and perhaps contrary to the actual rules, i remain cautious. The only time we will know for sure is when we come to use the cover. That said, I'm going to my local Philhealth office next week to check, and I'll take their advice as gospel and go with it. That said, again, a little gnawing concern will remain and I'm half-expecting that if and when the times comes to use it I'll face an issue.

I do think however that perhaps we should recognise how good a deal we had before, and that the new rule is not that unreasonable - most of us may not have contributed to the cost of running the healthcare system here to be fair. In fact, my own government has screwed me by canceling a certain type of NI rate for expats which will result in an increase from 120gbp a year to 700+gbp a year for me!

Stating the obvious here, but I'd just like a definitive answer on what the sutuation is, and to fall in line with that. I won't get that next week, i know.