The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) are offering new supplemental medical assistance program that will greatly benefit overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Rebecca Calzado, OWWA Administrator, and Alexander Padila (PhilHealth president and CEO) have signed a memorandum of agreement for MEDplus, a new one-time financial assistance program that will benefit all OFWs who are members of both OWWA and PhilHealth.
According to Calzado, MEDplus will be available for OFWs diagnosed with and subsequently hospitalized with ailments that demand long-term care.
“Chances are, those afflicted with these kinds of diseases can no longer work [or] they can still work pero walang kasiguraduhan ang kanilang tuloy-tuloy na pag-trabaho (but there aren’t any assurances that they can work long-term),” said Calzado.
Under MEDplus, OFWs may be granted financial help until they max out the P50,000 limit, which could be used for multiple treatments.
“If they’re found qualified, they can continue to claim hanggang umabot po sa (until it reaches the) total amount of P50,000… for the same type of disease,” explained the administrator.
It isn’t even a problem just in case an OFW is covered by, say, private insurance – they can still claim financial aid from MEDplus.
“Kung kunyari nagkasakit yung ating OFW abroad, at meron man silang insurance, let’s say meron silang private insurance, ang mangyayari po dun babayaran ng private insurance nila but they can claim sa PhilHealth yung ginastos din nila sa ospital abroad based on Philippine rates, (Let’s say an OFW gets sick and they have, let’s say, private insurance. They can use the private insurance coverage to pay for their bills but they can also claim their hospital expenses from PhilHealth based on Philippine rates” Padilla clarified.
There are more than 300 medical and surgical procedures that qualify under MEDplus. The program will be implemented starting September or October of this year.