Pensioners denied PhilHealth privilege

We are an aging SSS pensioner-couple but we were denied our right and privilege to be PhilHealth members.

How is this so? Both of us are pioneer SSS members, since 1958, when the Social Security System started operation. It appears that because of our early membership, despite completing the required years of membership and paying all premiums, we have been left to fend for ourselves. We have been told that we lost our health insurance benefits under Medicare when it was taken over by PhilHealth.

So what is this big hype about SSS pensioners being “habang buhay” PhilHealth members? We have been robbed of our right and privilege to enjoy the health insurance benefits due us as SSS pensioners. This is the spirit of the law?

Somewhere, somehow, something is very wrong with this policy of PhilHealth. Thus, we are calling on PhilHealth to remedy this “defect.” PhilHealth cannot just exclude and leave us, aging SSS pensioners, in the cold, denied of our right to access free healthcare insurance in the twilight years of our lives. We deserve respect, consideration and honor, for the services we rendered our country during our prime. Instead, we have been rejected, abandoned and forgotten, which makes us feel dejected and depressed.

We are hoping and praying for a favorable consideration of our plight.

—GRATITUD C. YOTOKO,

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