THERE are many things that can be said about the 2025 national budget approved by Congress, from its violation of the Constitutional provision that the education sector should get the largest share to the massive cuts in many departments, even as Congress has practically turned a dole-out program into a tool to enable their election campaigns.

But there is one area where, to my mind, they made the right decision. This was when they decided to withhold the government subsidy to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) in 2025.