Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go lauded the Government Service Insurance System on Tuesday, April 21, for increasing the life insurance benefits of its members— government medical frontliners— by an additional P500,000.
“Malaking tulong para sa ating mga medical frontliners ang additional life insurance na ibibigay ng GSIS. Patunay ito na maraming ginagawang hakbang ang ating gobyerno para mas pangalagaan ang kapakanan ng ating mga medical frontliners,” Go said.
With COVID-19 outbreak in the country and the high health risk of medical frontliners being directly exposed to the disease, the Senator saw the need for additional measures through increased insurance benefits to lessen the financial burden of surviving families in case of unfortunate death of government medical frontliners.
Meanwhile, Go was also calling upon the government to provide medical frontliners with necessary equipment and supplies, such as personal protective equipment, facial masks as well as their inclusion in the COVID-19 test protocols as one of the priority sectors.
“Ang ating hangarin ay kahit sa pinaka-worse situation, nariyan ang gobyerno upang mag-abot ng solusyon at tulong para sa mga medical frontliners at mga pamilya nito,” Go said.
In an online radio interview of GSIS President and General Manager Rolando Macasaet, a government medical frontliner has a regular life insurance of about P300,000 to P500,000 computed from 150% of his/her yearly compensation.
“May bago kaming programa na medical insurance para sa mga medical frontliners. Si President Duterte kasi ay magbibigay ng 1 million pesos to anybody (sa mga medical frontliners) who succumbs to COVID-19. Ang ginawa naman ng GSIS, nagbigay kami ng P0.5 million, P500,000 ito,” Macasaet said.
As explained by Macasaet, say a government medical frontliner, with a monthly salary of P30,000, died of COVID-19, the heirs will receive P540,000 life insurance benefit (P30,000 monthly salary x 12 months x 150%), additional P500,000 under the enhanced GSIS insurance benefit and P1 million under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, or at least a total of P2,040,000.
“So, theoretically ngayon, at least 2 million pesos,” Macasaet said pertaining to the computation he made.
As of this writing, over 766 healthcare workers have contracted COVID-19. According to the Department of Health, 339 were doctors, 242 were nurses and the rest are healthcare workers in different professions. Twenty-two of these healthcare workers have already succumbed to the disease.
The Bayanihan Fund for Frontliners covers GSIS members who are working under DOH, health offices and medical centers as well as treatment and rehabilitation centers. It also includes members who are in hospitals, especially in DOH-supervised hospitals.
On the other hand, Go has also earlier appealed to concerned government agencies for more benefits for government workers, such as special risk allowance, hazard pay including job order employees and contract of service workers.