On Thursday, 17 February, Hans Springer and Jill de Villa met with representatives of BPMSD and Vanbreda, who presented the results of last year's claims payments and premiums collection. To see the presentation, click on this link. 2010 was not a good year for health matters. Reimbursements tallied at that time had increased for both current and retired staff members—the rise was 47% over 2009, partly due to an unusually high number of “peak files”—individual cases costing P2 million or more.
Premiums collected were over P100 million below reimbursements. This is partly compensated for by the smoothing effect of the reserve established in 2009, when premiums exceeded reimbursements and the excess was set aside to smoothen future situations where the reverse happens. But the bottom line is we can expect a premium increase—probably not be 47%, but the actual amount will not be known until about midyear. Medical inflation continues to outpace the general cost of living inflation—and we all need to be aware of this and budget for it.