Overseas Filipino workers won’t have to pay health insurance premiums for now: Duterte
- Workers are petitioning for the payments, which comprise 3 per cent of their monthly salary, to be scrapped entirely amid the Covid-19 outbreak
- A Filipino domestic worker in Hong Kong earning the minimum wage would have to pay more than HK$1,660 annually
A law Duterte signed in February 2019 required OFWs to pay 3 per cent of their salary every month to PhilHealth instead of the previous flat fee of 2,400 pesos (US$47) yearly.
Implementation of the new fees was delayed, but PhilHealth last week issued a circular to start collecting them, and requiring proof of payments to the state insurer before a worker could be issued an overseas employment certificate allowing them to work abroad.
A petition on Change.org had collected more than 400,000 signatures before presidential spokesman Harry Roque announced that health secretary Francisco Duque III had suspended the premium payments on Duterte’s orders, and made them voluntary rather than mandatory.
A comment on the petition by Willie Vytngco, who is based in Doha, Qatar, said: “Our family was not included in any support from government and you want us to pay more? Enough.”