PhilHealth receives P53-billion budget; Akap gets zero

National

AFTER getting zero subsidy from the government last year, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will receive P53.3 billion for its National Health Insurance Program under the National Expenditure Program (NEP) next year.

On the other hand, the pet cash aid of the Congress, Ayuda Para Sa Kapos ang Kita Program (Akap), will receive zero funding for next year.

The move is part of the efforts of the executive branch to restore funding to critical agencies and slash on less urgent programs in the proposed P6.793 trillion national budget next year.

On Wednesday, August 13, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman presided over the turnover of the 2026 NEP to the House of Representatives.

In a report by Inquirer.net, Pangandaman stated that government subsidies restoration for PhilHealth would include insurance premiums of indirect contributors, as well as financial support for medical assistance to impoverished and financially incompetent patients.

She explained that Akap still has leftover funds for the program when it received a budget of P26 billion from 2025.

“Given the limited fiscal space, we have decided not to include it this year,” Pangandaman said.

Nueva Ecija Representative Mikaela Suansing, chairperson of the House committee on appropriations, expressed that although the House witnessed the value of the program, she would have to defer to her fellow members of the House on whether they would move to restore its budget for 2026.

“We’ve been seeing how it’s been helpful to many of our constituencies. It’s helped so many people, especially those previously untapped or not reached by our 4Ps program,” she explained, pointing to the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

“We will see how the discussions will go,” she said, adding that this was “the first time” she’s seen the NEP and the zero funding for AKAP.

According to lawyer Michael Henry Yusingco, a Constitutional Law expert, the budget for next year appears to be “more responsive to the urgent needs of the country compared to the 2025 budget, but our major concern is how Congress will proceed with [its] enactment.”

The social welfare program providing one-time cash assistance to minimum wage earners and near-poor Filipinos, AKAP was also not part of the NEP of 2025 but was inserted abruptly in the bicameral conference committee version with a P26-billion budget.(Marlon Ado Jr., USC Comm Intern)