The Court Bets Again on One Health Plan for 35,209

Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo signed a one-year Comprehensive Health Care Plan covering 35,209 sitting court workers on July 2, 2026. Kaiser International Healthgroup, Inc. and Manila Bankers Life and General Assurance Corporation kept the account they first took when the Court bought one plan for every court level in 2024.

The ceremony filled the Supreme Court Division Hearing Room in Manila. The bid papers put most of those names in the trial courts, not on the dais.

The Court Renewed the Plan on July 2, 2026

Gesmundo led the signing with Associate Justices Samuel H. Gaerlan and Raul B. Villanueva. Gaerlan chairs the SC Health and Welfare Plan Board and the technical working group that buys a unified health maintenance organization for the entire Judiciary. Clerk of Court En Banc Marife M. Lomibao-Cuevas signed for the Court. Dr. Leah Uy-Yolo, president of Kaiser International Healthgroup, signed for the joint venture, with Ferdinand N. Santos, president of Manila Bankers Life and General Assurance Corporation, looking on.

The Supreme Court renewed its Comprehensive Health Care Plan two years to the day after the first unified contract. Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Fernanda Lampas Peralta, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Geraldine Faith A. Econg, and Court of Tax Appeals Presiding Justice Ma. Belen M. Ringpis-Liban attended, which is how a staff benefit gets treated as an institutional act.

The #SupremeCourtPH (SC) has renewed its Comprehensive Health Care Plan for the Judiciary, reaffirming the Judiciary's commitment to the health and well-being of court personnel nationwide.

Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo led the contract signing ceremony on July 2, 2026,… pic.twitter.com/cZl7g9fKez

— Philippine Supreme Court Public Information Office (@SCPh_PIO) July 3, 2026

The first contract was signed on July 2, 2024, in the Session Hall and took effect on July 8, 2024, for one year. It replaced a habit in which each court level ran its own purchase. The 2026 papers still run for one year from signing, so the Court is not locking a multi-year HMO; it is choosing, each year, to buy as one employer.

THE UNIFIED PLAN, YEAR BY YEAR

1. July 2, 2024: Gesmundo leads the first judiciary-wide contract signing with the Kaiser and Manila Bankers joint venture.
2. July 8, 2024: The first one-year Comprehensive Health Care Plan takes effect for justices, judges, officials, and employees at every court level.
3. May 2025: The Bids and Awards Committee for Goods and Services issues ITB No. 10-2025 for another one-year plan, with an approved budget of PHP 1,006,919,031.54.
4. April 2026: ITB No. 09-2026 posts a one-year buy funded under the 2026 General Appropriations Act (Republic Act No. 12314).
5. July 2, 2026: Gesmundo leads the renewal signing in the Division Hearing Room, again with Kaiser and Manila Bankers.

No later Court notice through early October 2026 pulled that signature back. The bet from 2024 is still on the books.

Lower Courts Hold 29,064 of the 35,209 Slots

ITB No. 09-2026 counts 35,209 officials and employees as of January 31, 2026. That headcount is sitting justices, judges, officials, and staff. It is not dependents. Gesmundo’s 2024 brief still promised qualified dependents access with “minimal personal contributions,” but the peso cap in the 2026 bid is built on the incumbent roster.

THE 35,209 NAMES AS OF JANUARY 31, 2026

The Supreme Court’s own 3,435 names are 1,137 in salary grades 2 to 6, 1,009 in grades 7 to 17, 505 in grades 18 to 23, 654 in grades 24 to 27, 95 in grades 28 to 29, and 35 in grades 30 to 32. The lower courts dwarf that list: 10,047 workers in grades 2 to 6 and 14,146 in grades 7 to 17, before the higher trial-court bands of 1,273, 1,369, and 2,229. A plan sold in the Session Hall is, on the ledger, a first-level payroll product.

Coverage in the 2026 spec also takes in Presidential Electoral Tribunal staff with the appellate courts and the lower courts. Station is supposed to drop out of the benefit. That is the part of the 2024 bet the 2026 papers still try to cash.

Kaiser International Keeps the Joint Venture

Uy-Yolo signed in 2024 and signed again in 2026. Santos stood in as the insurer on the venture. The Court did not move the account to a larger household HMO name after two years of running one national spec.

Kaiser International Healthgroup, Inc. is a Philippine HMO. It sits on the Insurance Commission’s licensed HMO list as of February 2025 as item 15, Certificate of Authority HMO-2023-08-R, beside Maxicare, Medicard, and the rest of the licensed field. It is not Kaiser Permanente of the United States.

Marilyn I. De Joya, deputy clerk of court and chief of the Fiscal Management and Budget Office, and Maria Carina A. Matammu-Cunanan, deputy clerk of court and chief of the Office of Administrative Services, witnessed the 2026 signing. Matammu-Cunanan served as administering officer. The purchase sits in the Court’s own budget shop, not in 29,064 separate lower-court bids.

Erwin D. Ocson, president of the SC Employees Association, said the plan had widened access to care and had strengthened court staff. That is the in-house labor view. The public file still does not show claims volume, denial rates, or how often a municipal trial clerk outside Metro Manila actually reaches an accredited hospital. The Court is betting the network will carry the map. It has not published the proof.

The 2026 Bid Ceiling Is PHP 1,049,019,762.72

The approved budget for the 2026 contract is PHP 1,049,019,762.72, tax in. ITB No. 10-2025 had set PHP 1,006,919,031.54 the year before, so the posted ceiling rose by PHP 42,100,731.18. Divided across 35,209 listed workers, the 2026 cap comes to about PHP 29,794 a person for the year. Bidders still had to quote a premium per member inside that cap.

THE TWO PUBLISHED CEILINGS

Those figures are ceilings, not opened award notices. The 2026 invitation funded the Supreme Court share from the General Appropriations Act for 2026. The Court of Appeals share was drawn from savings under its 2025 local-currency current account, the Sandiganbayan share from its local-currency current account, and the Court of Tax Appeals share from 2025 savings. One plan, four pockets.

WHERE THE 2026 MONEY IS BOOKED

• Supreme Court: General Appropriations Act of 2026, Republic Act No. 12314.
• Court of Appeals: Savings under the 2025 local-currency current account.
• Sandiganbayan: Local-currency current account.
• Court of Tax Appeals: Savings from 2025.

A national HMO book at this size is a franchise even when it is rebid every year. Keeping Kaiser in the chair for a third season is the wager that the 2024 specs still fit 29,064 trial-court jobs.

What the One-Year Plan Covers

The 2026 technical specifications buy a full HMO stack for the listed roster: outpatient care, preventive care, emergency care, hospitalization, dental care, an annual physical, optical benefits, a death benefit, and reimbursement for listed medicines and vaccines the other clauses do not already pick up. Pre-existing conditions, including dreaded and non-dreaded illnesses in the bid annex, are waived on the effective date.

WHAT THE 2026 SPEC SHEET LISTS

• Outpatient and preventive care: Clinic visits and screening inside the contracted network.
• Emergency and inpatient care: Hospital treatment, with non-accredited bills repaid on the provider’s relative-value rates and the patient paying any excess.
• Dental and optical: Separate lines in the same one-year lot.
• Annual physical and drug cover: A yearly exam plus reimbursement for prescribed medicines and vaccines outside two named paragraphs of the spec.
• Death benefit: A cash line item in the same schedule, amount set in the contract annexes.

Room class still tracks rank. For sitting and eligible retired justices, and for their enrolled spouses, the spec calls for the highest type of open private room available inside a PHP 1,000,000.00 limit. That is the one room rule printed in the 2026 bid book. Staff and trial judges sit on other rows of the same table; the Court did not collapse every bed into one class when it collapsed the purchase into one lot.

Claims for reimbursement must be filed with the provider within 30 working days of discharge or consultation, and paid by check to the institution within 30 working days if the papers are complete. The plan is built for a swipe at an accredited desk first, with paperwork as the backup when a hall of justice sits far from the network.

SPJI Listed Staff Health Under Efficiency

The 2024 launch sat under the Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations 2022-2027, in the Efficiency outcome, as a way to look after “internal stakeholders.” Gesmundo said then that the Court wanted judicial officers, employees, and qualified dependents to have “proper access to health services and products, with minimal personal contributions,” and to seek care without “the anxiety of an unexpected financial burden.”

Gaerlan put the same bet in plainer words at the 2026 table, tying the HMO to the work the public actually sees.

A judiciary that aspires to deliver timely, fair, and accessible justice must likewise be a Judiciary that values the welfare of its own people. By investing in their health and well-being, we strengthen not only our workforce but also the institution they faithfully serve.

Samuel H. Gaerlan, Associate Justice and Chairperson, SC Health and Welfare Plan Board, July 2, 2026 contract signing

SPJI still runs through 2027, the same horizon as this one-year HMO habit. The Court has spent that stretch on e-payments, eCourt, regional court managers, and a Judicial Burnout Scale app. The health plan is the analog piece of the same argument: a judge who is not financing a hospital bill from take-home pay is easier to keep on the bench. That is a management claim. The bid file does not test it against clearance times or sick-leave days.

How the Court Pays for Coverage

Payment is not a lump for 35,209 names. The 2026 papers say the Court will pay on the number of actually filled posts at the start of the contract year, times the winning premium per member, subject to audit rules. Empty items on the plantilla do not generate a premium. New hires after that snapshot follow the same rate only as they are filled.

The contract lasts one year from signing. The Court may end it on 30 calendar days’ written notice if the Office of Administrative Services finds a breach, without going to court first. If the parties need a short extension, they may negotiate under the same terms “as far as practicable.” That clause is how a one-year experiment becomes a standing desk without a ten-year concession.

The public still has no Court-issued claims report for 2024 or 2025, so the 2026 signature is a repeat purchase, not a published performance review. For a clerk in salary grades 2 to 6, the change that matters is simpler than the ceremony: one card, one spec, and a Manila HMO on the hook in provinces that used to wait on a local bid. Gesmundo is paying that bill again.