Ridiculous.

The idea is like overfeeding an already fattened calf.

Is there a sinister plan to make the state health insurance provider into yet another cash cow of the usual grabbing hands in government?

What makes the proposal even outrageous is the rate of increase – 160 percent! -- in the members’ contributions to Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

Who can afford such hefty hike during this period of great economic difficulties when workers can hard make both ends meet?          

And so we agree with and support Sen. Ralph G. Recto in thumbing down the cockamamie plan to impose the upward adjustment in Philhealth contributions considering its enormous cash “reserves” and huge subsidies from government.

“PhilHealth could achieve viability and attain efficacy in its delivery of services without having to impose another burden to its members, which is essentially another form of payroll tax,” Recto said in a statement.

Like deductions for withholding tax, Social Security System/Government Service Insurance System, and the Pag-IBIG Fund, PhilHealth contributions are also automatically deducted from the payroll of workers.

The chairman of the Senate ways and means committee and senior vice chairman of the Senate budget panel said PhilHealth may always decide to tap its retained earnings, which have peaked to P110 billion in 2010, to bankroll expansion of services and benefits such as reducing “out-of-pocket expenses” of members.

He said aside from sitting on its retained earnings that could eclipse by two-fold the entire budget of the Department of Health, PhilHealth is also a consistent top recipient of state subsidies.

From January to November in 2011, PhilHealth was among the top agencies that have received the biggest slice of the P45.205 billion in subsidies given out to state-owned corporations.

In the first half of last year, PhilHealth already racked up P5.1 billion in subsidies from government. It is also expected to receive the biggest part of this year’s programmed GOCC subsidy of P18.7 billion.

On top of the funding support, PhilHealth stands to receive P1.5 billion in the 2012 budget to cover premium payment arrears covering 2.9 million indigent families.

“What happened to these subsidies? And what are you doing with your billions in retained earnings?” Recto asked.

The senator added that the planned hike in premium payments would hurt struggling small and medium enterprises, which have to contend with a buffet of regulatory compliance like membership in SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG.

“And we’re making it worse by increasing the premium payments of their workers, which are shouldered in part by them,” he said, adding that even local government units would be adversely affected by the move and as a result, create havoc in their fiscal planning for this year.

He said job generation would also be stifled arising from the increase in PhilHealth premiums since companies will have second thoughts hiring more workers for fear of bloating their operating budget.

In a circular approved by its board, PhilHealth premium contributions for new members will increase from P300 to P600 quarterly or a total of P2,400 per year. Covered by the increase are members who are earning P25,000 a year based on their income tax returns.