PhilHealth office in HK eyed

A PROPOSAL will be made to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to set up a permanent office of the agency at the Philippine Consulate General to serve the 200,000 Filipinos living and working in Hong Kong.

In an interview, Chona Sienes-Yap, senior manager of the Overseas Filipinos Program of PhilHealth, said the huge number of Filipino workers here in the territory should justify a permanent office.

Yap’s team held a three-day mission on June 11-13 in Hong Kong in time for this year’s Philippine Independence Day celebrations.

“Our board of directors would have to approve it. We would have to justify that the amount we would be able to collect is bigger than what we would be spending to put up a permanent office here,” she said, adding that at least two PhilHealth personnel would need to be assigned to the post.

Besides Hong Kong, Sienes-Yap said she would also recommend to put up a PhilHealth office in the United Arab Emirates, where some 800,000 Filipinos work.