Solo parents no longer need to pay their PhilHealth share

Employee contributions will be covered by the government under the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act.

Solo parents working in the public and private sectors will no longer have their PhilHealth premium share deducted from their salaries under a new implementation of the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act.

The change took effect on September 24, according to officials from the Department of Health and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) during the House of Representatives’ budget deliberations.

Republic Act No. 11861, or the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act, provides that PhilHealth contributions for solo parents in the formal economy are shared by their employers and the National Government. PhilHealth previously said the government would shoulder the solo parent’s contribution, subject to the availability and allocation of funds.

Lawmakers from Bagong Henerasyon Partylist said the latest implementation means employed solo parents, whether working for the government or private companies, will no longer have their share deducted from their pay.

That changes how the benefit will be felt at the payroll level, since employees who previously saw a PhilHealth deduction should no longer have that amount deducted from their salaries once their employer’s payroll system reflects the new rules.

Under the 2026 PhilHealth contribution rate of 5% of monthly basic salary, the employee normally shoulders half, or 2.5%. That means a solo parent earning ₱20,000 a month, for example, would typically have ₱500 deducted for PhilHealth, while someone earning ₱50,000 would have ₱1,250 deducted. The employee share is capped at ₱2,500 a month.

PhilHealth’s existing employer procedures generally require the employee’s share of premiums to be deducted from salary and remitted together with the employer’s share, making the new arrangement a change in payroll processing.

PhilHealth has already recognized solo parents as a category under the National Health Insurance Program, with registration linked to the Solo Parent Identification Card or government data-sharing arrangements.

The agency’s website, however, had not yet posted the new circular when the announcement was made.

PhilHealth Region VII said the circular was published on Saturday, with its posting on the official website to be handled by the PhilHealth Head Office.

The circular was expected to be uploaded by Monday, but the posting may have been affected by the government work suspension that afternoon, with Tuesday as the latest expected date for its posting.

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