Is PhilHealth Worth It?

(Updated 5 March 2020)

I have probably had this question, “Is PhilHealth Worth It?” repeatedly asked more than a hundred times since I moved to the Philippines, full-time, in 2006.

My answer is almost always a resounding yes, but a great many ex-pats will tend to disagree with me. This opinion generally seems from the attitude of most North Americans (at least those who actually even bother to HAVE health insurance) that to be worth anything. health insurance has to cover all expenses.  PhilHealth does NOT cover all costs involved with every sickness or surgery, but it is one hell of a lot better than having no health insurance at all … and when you get sick (not IF, but WHEN) you’ll be damn glad to have it.

[Read more…]

Will your disability be payable in the Philippines? 

(Updated 27 February 2020)

The answer to this frequent question is a definite yes, no or maybe.  I hate to sound flippant but this is one of those questions that can only be answered with another question.

What do you mean by Social Security Disability?

I get a lot of questions on this subject because while Social Security Disability payments are quite common, and they are supposed to cover the expenses of folks who are permanently disabled, they are very, very hard to live on in the USA.

The average disability monthly payment will support most people who live in the Philippines.  But there are some major factors to consider:

Will your disability be payable in the Philippines?

There are typically two categories of disability payments from the SSA (Social Security Administration)  — Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

SSDI _IS_ payable in the Philippines.

SSI is _NOT_ payable in the Philippines.

So before you make your plans to move to the Philippines and live off your disability payments, you better check very closely to make sure your payments will continue should you move here.

Be very careful about this because there are many folks on SSDI who also receive a monthly SSI supplement.  If you leave the USA for more than 30 days, your SSI supplementary payments will stop, and they can’t ever be restarted until you have been back in the USA for 30 days or more.

So your SSDI payments can continue if you move to the Philippines, but if you also have an SSI component to your payment, it’s going to stop 30 days after you leave the USA.

So you may well wind up with a greatly reduced payment.

Can you then actually receive that payment?

The Social Security Administration contracts with several commercial banks to send overseas payments to overseas recipients.

But don’t think you are going to receive a check in your mailbox.

Americans receiving government pensions may have those pensions direct deposited to their Philippine bank accounts.  Participating banks include the following followed by the fees each charges per direct deposit to a U.S. dollar account in the Philippines.

Allied Banking Corporation – $3.00
Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) – $3.00
Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) – $5.00
Land Bank of the Philippines – $5.00
Maybank – $3.00
Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB) – $3.00
China Bank – $3.00
RCBC – $3.00 to $5.00
Bank of Commerce (BOC) – $5.00 to $7.00
Manila Bank – $1.00
Security Bank – $5.00
United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) – $4.00 to $6.00
Metrobank – $3.00
Philippine National Bank – $7.00

The banks with variable fees charge more for larger direct deposits.

How Do You Start Direct Deposit of your Benefits?

If you’d like to sign up for direct deposit in the Philippines go to the bank you have chosen, open a US Dollar account and ask for the direct deposit enrollment form.

The bank will help you fill it out and the bank will submit the form to Social Security representatives in Manila.

The account into which the funds are paid must be an individual account.  For example, you can not deposit into a joint account with your wife or a child or caregiver.

A Social Security concern is that benefits may continue to be paid and spent long after the pensioner has expired.

So you CAN receive your benefits by direct deposit in the Philippines, but it is not necessarily easy.

For an authoritative Reading On Receiving benefits overseas, you may find this

Payments Outside the United States tool useful

 

So Now You Know More About Will your disability be payable in the Philippines? 

How long does my round-trip ticket have to be to go to the Philippines?

(Updated 25 February 2020)

The answer to this question can be very simple.  You get 30 days of stay in the Philippines, free, upon arrival at an airport in the Philippines.

But who said you need a round trip ticket?  That’s the complicated part.

The Law of the Philippines and the Rule Airlines Follow Is:

You must have onward travel out of the Philippines within 30 days of your arrival.  If you don’t have this onward travel, the airlines normally will not let you board your flight from the US to the Philippines.  But nowhere does any law say you must have a round trip ticket back to the USA.  That’s the first issue that complicates the answer to the question.

But I WANT A Round Trip Ticket

OK, then, that’s fine.  Many people do.  Perhaps you only have so many days off from work, or you have other reasons you have to be back in the USA by a certain date.

No problem then, a round trip ticket from any USA cu=ity is normally quite a bit cheaper than two one-way tickets.  Here’s a real-world example with prices quoted today, 25 February 2020.

Kansas City to Manila and return: Depart 9ak March 12th,

and the return on April 12th:

Not bad connections and not bad arrival and departure times.

But Is a One-Way Just Half Of That Price

And the answer is no, it’s almost always way more than one half.  Let me try to see what a one way, same date and time would cost.

And a return on the 12th of April?

 

So we can see here, same dates, basically, the same airlines (cheapest) have a round trip cost of $1377.22

And the equivalent two single tickets (one-way) tickets add up to $1747.46   More than $370 “surcharge” for buying the same travel in two parts.

Or you could also say that buying the round trip airfare saves you more than $370 to spend on hotels. food.local travel and such.

Thanks, A Lot, I know I Want A Round Trip … But How Many Days Is What I Asked?

Yes, you did.  And the answer, which I already gave in the first paragraphs is 30 days.  But this may pose another question.  How do you determine what 30 days means to the BIR (Bureau of Immigration) in the Philippines?

Here are the rules that apply.

1,  The day your flight arrives is the first day of your stay in the Philippines.  Because of the day the BIR “counts”, you may want to think twice about your planned arrival time in the Philippines.  For example, if your flight arrives here leat at night, as many do, then most of your “first day in the Philippines” may be consumed in your final cramped hours in an airline seat.

On the other hand if you pick a fight that arrives here very early in the morning, you essentially get a “free day” in the Philippines.

Not a huge consideration, buy-t never-the-less something to think about.

2.  The day your outbound airplane departs is _NOT_ a Day Of Stay in the Philippines.  So technically, if the last day of your 30-day stay is on a Wednesday, and your outbound flight leaves the following day, Thursday, you should be “golden” according to the BIR rules.

Let’s look at the example flights I priced up at the beginning of the article here.

Depart MCI (Kansas City) on 12 March ay 9:15 am.  You arrive in Manila, after less than 24 hours of total travel time, at 9:45 on the night of (not the 12th but the 13th … you have to cross the International Date Line, so you are always going to lose a day going to the Philippines.)

So if your plane arrives on schedule, your “30 days of stay” clock starts with the 13th of March,  So on 31 March, the last day of the month, you will have used up 19 of your 30 days.  11 days to go.  From 1 April to 11 April is (count them up, surprise, 11 days) so with our outbound flight scheduled on Sunday, the 12th, isn’t there a problem?  The 12th is the 31st day, after all.

Nope, no problem at all.  Remember the second rule I explained above?  The day your flight leaves is _NOT_ a “Day of Stay”, so the immigration officer will be all smiles as you get your passport stamped for departure prior to boarding your flight home. 30 days of stay allowed, 30 days of stay used up … maximum bang for your buck.

(remember that id your stay extends of[ver the end of a 30 day, or a 28 or 29 day month, to count properly … if you are staying over a 3o day month, you can arrive on the 12 and schedule your departure on the 13th of the following month.)

(Also, note … that day you “lost” coming here?  Well, you get it back on your trip home … you leave the Philippines and you’ll be back in the USA on the same day you left here, almost no matter how many hours your flight consumes.

OK, I Understand Now, But What If I Don’t Know When I want To Go Back?

Well, there is an easy work-around for that.  It’s normally called a “show” ticket or a “throwaway ticket”.

Simply purchase a one-way ticket from your home to the Philippines,

Then also purchase a ticket outbound from the Philippines at any time within your initial 30 days, bound for anywhere.  The date and time nor destination don’t matter much, just make sure it’s cheap because you are never going to actually use that ticket.

It is just for “show” to satisfy the airlines’s requirements (and possibly the BIR officer’s requirement) when you arrive in the Philippines.  Once you are “in”, you’re in.

If you want to stay longer than the original 30 days, you can extend your stay, 30 or 60 days at a time, at any of the Bureau of Immigration offices located all over the Philippines.  They never ask for any onward travel and you can extend, 1 or 2 months at a time for up to three years in the Philipines … then leave once, come back and start the clock all over again.

That original “show” ticket?  Well, you just throw it away (or if it is an e-ticket, just hit delete.

Where To Get a Throwaway Ticket?

Simple.  Just type Philippine Throw Away Ticket into Google … there will be dozens of places shown.  Or you can do what I would do.  Go to  Cebu Pacific Airlines and check flight to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia from Manila.  Right now you can buy a ticket to Kota Kinabalu on the 29th of March for 2055 Philippine Pesos, or about $41 USD.  Buy it (ir will come as an e-ticket and hang on to it (showing it as needed) until you are safely through immigration in Manila, then delet it … it has served you well.

Two Questions For The Price Of One Answered Here

1.   How can I fly to the Philippines on a one-way ticket and how How long does my round-trip ticket have to be to go to the Philippines?

What else would you like to know?  You ask, I answer,

In case you are not aware, the Manila U.S. Embassy’s phone number changed recently.

It is now: 02-5-301-2000.

The sneaky 5 was added.

The Social Security office can also be reached at that number.

When the recording starts, press 9. Social Security only takes calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8am to 11am.

Thanks and a tip of the hat to the folks at RAO Subic Bay.

Also, and a further tip of the hat to reader Lewis:

Anyway, I called the U.S. Embassy (today, Dec. 9, 2019), to get the numbers for the Visa Call Center, and the numbers given in the recording are not complete/correct. I called the embassy mainline, got the operator and got the correct numbers. Please take note:

02-8548-8223
02-7792-8988