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Eligibility for PhilHealth
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Can a non-Philippine citizen who’s living in the Philippines on a tourist visa purchase national health insurance?
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The short answer to this question, surprisingly, is YES. That’s because the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), which is responsible for the national health insurance system, expanded its coverage to include foreigners on July 1, 2017. (I literally just found out about this as I'm writing this answer, which is why I said “surprisingly”.) Under this scheme, foreigners in possession of an Alien Certificate of Registration can register for PhilHealth. More specifically, according to the circular implementing this change, this includes all people with ACRs who are on immigrant and non-immigrant visas, as well as those on the Temporary Visitor Visa (a.k.a. the visa waiver stamp), so this definitely includes tourists who have stayed in the Philippines for at least 59 days. Since you can stay up to 2–3 years on a tourist visa, PhilHealth does come in handy. If you already have an ACR, to register for PhilHealth as a foreigner you will simply need to fill out this application form and submit it to your nearest PhilHealth office, along with your premium payment. The major exception to this are foreigners on the Special Resident Retiree Visa (SRRV), where the form has to be submitted to the Philippine Retirement Authority for processing. Premiums meanwhile are ₱15,000 ($300) a year for foreign retirees and ₱17,000 ($330) a year for all other foreigners, payable either quarterly, biannually or annually. What that gets you is coverage comparable to what you get if you’re self-employed and covered under PhilHealth, with three major caveats: Foreigners enrolled in PhilHealth can’t avail of the Z benefit package, which covers treatment for “catastrophic” illnesses like leukemia, certain cancers, renal failure, coronary bypasses, orthopedic implants and preventative treatments to avoid premature birth, plus a few others.Foreign women enrolled in PhilHealth also don’t qualify for special Women About to Give Birth privileges (WAGTB). Basically, PhilHealth won’t cover pre-natal care, but it will cover childbirth and newborn care.Finally, PhilHealth coverage for foreigners does NOT extend abroad, unlike PhilHealth coverage for Filipinos, which does.I should let you know though that PhilHealth is best only at government hospitals. Its coverage is insufficient for private hospitals and medical care, even if most private institutions accept it, so many people rely on private health insurance in addition to PhilHealth, and you may want to consider the same. I, for example, rely on health insurance from my company’s HMO in addition to whatever benefits I get from paying into the national health insurance system. PhilHealth coverage for foreigners is still quite new and it’s likely that not a lot of people know about it yet, so if you do decide to avail of PhilHealth coverage, it might help to print out the circular and the form to show the PhilHealth office just in case they forget. But either way, at least now you’re covered when you’re here, and that’s a good thing.
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Original Question: “Can a non-Philippine citizen who's living in the Philippines on a tourist visa purchase national health insurance?” Yes, a non-Philippine citizen who's living in the Philippines on a tourist visa may contribute to PhilHealth. I have been on it for several years already. I suggest you contact PhilHealth directly. Just research or google their contact details online.