Employed persons with disability (PWDs) will no longer pay their share of PhilHealth premiums under PhilHealth Circular No. 2026-0017. The circular splits the premium equally between the employer and the National Government and records the government’s portion as non-collectible from the worker.
Acting PhilHealth President and CEO Dr. Beverly Lorraine C. Ho signed the circular on October 7, 2026, after the PhilHealth Board approved it through Board Resolution No. 3090. It implements Republic Act No. 11228, which mandates automatic PhilHealth enrollment for all PWDs. The circular takes effect once it is published in a newspaper of general circulation or in the Official Gazette and filed with the Office of the National Administrative Register at the UP Law Center.
What changes for PWD members
Employed members in 2026 pay a premium of 5% of their monthly basic salary, with a ₱10,000 income floor and a ₱100,000 ceiling, and they split it equally with their employer. This puts the employee share at between ₱250 and ₱2,500 a month. Under the new circular, that share now goes to the National Government for workers verified as PWDs.
Self-earning individuals, professional practitioners, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and other direct contributors without an employer will be reclassified as Indirect Contributors once they are verified in the PWD Registry. The National Government will pay their full premium. Members in these categories currently pay the entire premium themselves.
PWDs below 21 who are unmarried, unemployed, and without children will be registered as principal members once they are verified.
The subsidy for employed PWDs starts in the month the employer submits complete requirements:
- A PhilHealth Member Registration Form (PMRF)
- A photocopy of the employee’s PWD ID
- An Employer Certification (Annex A)
Employers can file these through their PhilHealth Employers’ Engagement Representative or at the nearest Local Health Insurance Office (LHIO). For PWDs who are not employed, the subsidy starts in the calendar year they are confirmed in the registry.
Registry checks and the National ID requirement
PhilHealth will validate disability status against the Department of Health’s Philippine Registry of Persons with Disability (PRPWD). It will later use the Unified Persons with Disabilities ID System (UPWDIS), a central database that the National Council on Disability Affairs and the DSWD launched in July 2026. Local PWD Affairs Offices remain responsible for issuing PWD IDs and encoding records.
Members with a PWD ID or medical certificate who are not yet in the registry will be tagged “For Verification.” They keep their current category and continue paying the matching premium while confirmation is pending, and they remain entitled to PhilHealth benefits. If they are later confirmed, they are reclassified from the date of tagging.
All registrations and record updates at LHIOs now require an identity and liveness check through the PhilHealth Check Utility, which relies on PhilSys registration. Members without a National ID record must present other valid proof of identity. Members can also verify themselves and update their records through the PhilHealth Member Portal or the eGov PH Super App.
Hospital billing and penalties
The circular sets the order of deductions for PWD hospital bills. Hospitals must first apply the 12% VAT exemption, then the 20% PWD discount, and then any PhilHealth benefit before filing a claim.
Members who use falsified, expired, cancelled, or fraudulently obtained IDs will have their records corrected and any subsidy or benefit recovered, and they may face further legal liability. If a member is later found not to be a PWD, the registration will be cancelled but kept in the system for audit purposes.
PhilHealth said it will issue separate advisories for provisions that require system upgrades, along with a public advisory once the UPWDIS is fully operational.
