Melson Miko, PVA Community/Support Services Manager, said they clearly understood the HCF and the benefits they could get from the insurance.
“They came here to meet with us to share with us the information, to clear some issues and questions regarding the national healthcare fund,” Miko said in an interview.
He said that before the presentation, they have a lot of questions and issues to clarify.But after the meeting the SSA gave impressive explanation and information about the implementation of HCF.
Miko said HCF is considered beneficial to everybody. It is an outstanding program of the Republic.
Meanwhile, PVA also expressed their side regarding the government plans to move the HCF implementation to Oct. 2011 and lower the contributions from 2.5 to 1.5 percent.
Miko said they do not agree with the plans. “Once the government lowers the contributions, it may also lessen the benefits that we could get from the insurance.”
The HCF program is under the National healthcare Financing Act which became law on May 7, 2010. The HCF consists of two parts, the Medical Savings Accounts (MSA) and National Healthcare Insurance (NHI)
The MSA is designed to help individuals, especially younger people to save money to pay for future healthcare costs. It provides an incentive for individuals to take ownership of their health as they save for higher healthcare costs in old age.
Meanwhile, the NHI is designed to complement the medical savings accounts. It is a social health insurance that pools contributions and is issued to cover the costs of catastrophic illnesses or prolonged injuries.
On Oct. 1, employers started to withhold 2.5 percent of their employee’s earnings every pay period with 2.5 percent employer’s share. But for the self-employed persons they paid 5 percent because they are considered both an employee and employer.
Beginning April 1, 2011, contributing employees may start to use their MSA funds as well as the NHI.
