Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon is accusing the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) of overpricing its COVID-19 test kits by 50 percent over the costs charged by Red Cross.
In an interview with CNN Philippines’ Pinky Webb, Drilon questioned why Philhealth was charging P8,150 for a package of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests when the Red Cross was only charging P4,000 for the same kit.
Based on his research, Drilon said a test kit would cost P1,500 from China to which the hospital would add up P2,000 for overhead and cost of materials plus a reasonable margin of P500.
This is why Drilon believes the Philhealth package was outrageously overpriced at more than 100 percent.
With the Department of Health targeting up to two million Filipinos for testing, Drilon said Philhealth could potential have an overprice of P8.3 billion for the test kits.
Drilon said that when he asked Health Secretary Francisco Duque III about the huge discrepancy between the pricing of the Philhealth and Red Cross at the Senate Committee of the Whole hearing on May 19, he could not answer.
Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)
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