A bill filed in the House of Representatives seeks to institutionalize a comprehensive health insurance package for public school teachers and provide them with an annual P7,000 Medical allowance to subsidize the use of this benefit.
Through House Bill 10990, Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan sought to make the Department of Education’s (DepEd) plan to provide health maintenance organization (HMO)-type coverage for public school teachers a permanent feature of the benefits package provided for all its present and future teaching personnel.
“Our bill also promotes preventive healthcare. With HMO-type benefits, our usually overworked public school teachers would be able to maintain their well-being and get treatment when necessary without having to worry about mounting medical expenses, long before health concerns become severe or life-threatening,” Yamsuan said.
Close to one million public school teachers in the basic education system stand to benefit from the measure, according to the lawmaker.
Under the proposed measure, qualified public school teachers would each receive an annual medical allowance not exceeding P7,000 as a subsidy to enable DepEd to procure a contract with an HMO on their behalf.
Yamsuan said the amount of medical allowance is subject to mandatory review every three years by the Education Department to ensure this is sufficient and reflective of current market prices.
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