I’m
hurrying to publish this post before June 2012 ends for an important PhilHealth
2012 update you should know about. This is because by July 2012, contributions
for your PhilHealth membership will double in amount. So you can still catch up
and pay your contribution before this month ends. In fact, you can pay in
advance all the way till next year’s contribution in order to save money.
I
actually tried to pay ahead until 2015 but that didn’t work (lol!). Advanced payments
accepted are only until the succeeding year. But at least I was able to take
care of my PhilHealth contribution and won’t have to worry about it until this
year ends (2012) all throughout 2013. I’ve at least met my goal to deal with
social (SSS) and health security this year. It was a pending goal since last
year when I became a full time freelancer. I was able to take care of both with
ease. The SSS (Social Security System) experience will be narrated in a
different post soon.
One
of the benefits of living in the province is shorter files everywhere you are.
Unbelievably, even in government offices which are notorious for unimaginably
long files, it doesn’t take an entire day for verification, payments, or any
other purposes. Although it was inconvenient that the provincial PhilHealth
office where I headed to actually changed location and I didn’t know about it
until I arrived at the old office, it took only a few minutes for my number to
be called over one of the clerk’s desks when I reached the new office. So even
if the city (where this PhilHealth was based) was more than an hour away from
where I lived (considering traffic and the slow moving bus due to wet roads), I
was able to complete the entire task in half a day. I still had time to
accomplish other plans for the day. Even my cold and the cold, rainy weather
that day, plus the freezing aircon bus couldn’t stop me.
Why choose PhilHealth?
Obviously,
it was the most affordable choice. The contribution costs only Php 300 pesos
per quarter or that’s just a Php 100 pesos per month. In a year, you only pay
Php 1,200. Even if the rates will be increased this coming 3rd
quarter of 2012, it is still considerably cheap paying for Php 2,400 annually
and Php 600 quarterly (Php 200 a month). Payment is only quarterly and monthly interim
payments are not accepted. In case you don’t get to use it because you don’t
end up hospitalized at anytime, that’s still so much better than hoping not to
get sick because no one knows the future (fortune teller eh?! Lol!).
If
you can afford a premium health card at around Php 15,000 yearly, then it would
be better so you can seek medical assistance in private hospitals. With
PhilHealth, only a portion of your hospital bills are paid unless you check in
at a government or public hospital. If you have the means to pay for unexpected
hospitalization, then PhilHealth and health cards may not even be necessary.
Lucky you!
But
for those who wouldn’t want to take chances but don’t want to spend a lot on
health security, then PhilHealth is the best option. Hurry and pay your contribution
before June 2012 ends and the premiums are increased by July 2012.
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