ABSTRACT
The Philippine government has invested in an empirically driven database for poor households to help improve effectiveness of programs targeted at them. On the provision of universal health care, the main development is the expansion of the sponsored program where government pays the health insurance premium of the poor using revenues from recently passed “sin taxes.” This earmarked source of financing has contributed significantly to its socio-political and financial sustainability. On the social protection for children, the main development is in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (Pantawid), the Philippine version of the conditional cash transfer program.
In the case of the working age population, by law almost every risk and population group – including household help and informal sector workers – are covered. With respect to risk, the only remaining unresolved issue is the provision of unemployment insurance. With respect to coverage, the weakness lies in terms of actual coverage. For instance, the proportion of contributing members among private wage and salary workers whose contributions are supposed to be mandatory is only around 40 percent in 2013. Given this, it is not surprising that the coverage of the voluntary members – including own-account workers, non-working spouse, household helpers, overseas Filipino workers – is even lower. On the social protection for the elderly, the main development is in the social pensions program, which provides monthly pensions of PHP 500 to indigent seniors 60 years and above.
While many of the recent social protection proposals which will count towards SPF are straightforward, others need refinements. A case in point is the proposal to subsidize the premium of Social Security System coverage of informal sector workers. It would be more productive to expand first the coverage of wage and salary workers, which is currently low, before turning attention to the informal sector workers. There is a need to demonstrate that the system can cover its main mandatory target population before pushing for expansion of coverage of the more problematic voluntarily covered population.
