A senior lawmaker is calling on Congress to immediately pass a bill providing insurance coverage, special risk allowance and other benefits to health workers.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte Jr. said last Sunday that the benefits cover both public and private health workers and would be granted to them during the period of the state of national calamity resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.
âThis measure will ensure that our heroes in the fight against Covid-19 will resume receiving the benefits granted to them under the âBayanihan 2â law, which expired in June,â Villafuerte, principal author in the House of both the Bayanihan 1 and Bayanihan 2 laws, said.
The measure for medical frontliners comprises five billsâintroduced by Villafuerte and several other lawmakersâthat were recently approved in principle by the House health committee.
Once enacted into law, Villafuerte said the benefits will be granted to health personnel, including barangay health workers, until September 12, 2022. That day ends the state of calamity, unless earlier lifted or extended as circumstances may warrant.
Data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed that under Bayanihan 2, a total of 475,723 out of more than 526,000 health workers had received special risk allowances from December 20, 2020 to June 30, 2021, amounting to P7.567 billion.
The benefits to be given to health workers under the billâto be known as âCovid-19 Benefits for Health Workers Act of 2021â include the following: monthly special risk allowance for all directly catering to or in contact with Covid-19 patients; hazard duty pay; and, life insurance, accommodation, transportation and meals.
House Bill (HB) 7490, one of the five bills to be consolidated by a technical working group, seeks government to provide all healthcare frontliners a hazard pay equivalent to at least 30 percent of their respective basic salaries for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Villafuerte said he ensured this hazard pay would also be given to workers of third-party service contractors (like security guards and janitors) who are assigned to medical facilities treating Covid-infected patients.