PhilHealth-6 Reports Drop in Active Membership, Not Budget-Related

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. in Western Visayas (PhilHealth-6) reported a decline in active membership registrations as of March 2025, but clarified that it is not tied to the agency’s ongoing budget concerns.

Junie Sabusap, chief of PhilHealth-6’s Field Operations Division, said the drop was largely due to the ongoing renewal process for households listed under the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) “Listahanan 3” database.

“One of the reasons why there is seemingly a decrease in member registration as of this March is because the renewal is ongoing under what we call Listahanan 3,” he said during a press conference Friday, April 25.

Listahanan 3 is the third cycle of the DSWD’s National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction, which identifies poor Filipino households nationwide for social protection programs.

In October 2023, DSWD and PhilHealth signed a data-sharing agreement allowing the agency to prioritize poor households as beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) under the Universal Health Care Act.

The validity of sponsored membership under the NHIP typically lasts for one year from the date of enrollment or renewal.

After one year, households must renew their membership to continue availing themselves of PhilHealth benefits.

“We don’t immediately register it totally because we’re still validating discrepancies,” Sabusap explained. “If we load it automatically into our database without validation, it can create more discrepancies, which is why we have this manual validation.”

Sabusap said the manual validation process is ongoing and will be completed by June 30.

He stressed that registration numbers will increase significantly after validation and that they expect to match last year’s registration figures.

The 2025 national budget allocated no subsidy to PhilHealth, a decision justified by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and officials who cited the agency’s large reserve funds of around PHP600 billion.

The move drew criticism from lawmakers, health advocates, and some senators, who argued it could undermine PhilHealth’s ability to serve indigent and vulnerable populations.

However, Sabusap dismissed concerns that the lack of subsidy affected the current registration decline.

“The zero subsidy has no effect. It’s only because registration is still ongoing,” he said.

In the first quarter of 2025, PhilHealth-6 reported that 80 percent—or 6.56 million out of 8.2 million registered members—were actively contributing.

Iloilo province and city posted the highest active membership rate at 82.75 percent, followed by Negros Occidental at 81.21 percent, and Guimaras at 79.78 percent.

Capiz recorded the lowest active membership rate at 72.63 percent.