COLLEGE students will no longer have to fork out extra money for their studies as the government has ordered the removal of the medical insurance requirement for those attending limited face-to-face (F2F) classes.

Malacañang on Friday announced that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has issued a resolution repealing a policy requiring students participating in in-person classes to be enrolled in Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) or any insurance provider.

The requirement was contained in a joint memorandum by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and the Department of Health (DoH) for the limited conduct of F2F classes in areas under Alert Level 1.

The memorandum stated that students who participate in limited F2F classes must be registered with PhilHealth or an equivalent medical insurance, which will cover medical expenses linked to Covid-19.

This was met with resistance as many tertiary-level students are already hard-pressed in paying for their school fees and the costly medical insurance is a requirement not all can comply with.

Acting deputy spokesman and Communications Undersecretary Kris Ablan, in a press briefing, said the decision was made upon the recommendation of CHEd to help ease the financial burden of students, especially those from lowincome families.

The IATF-EID, however, reminds higher education institutions to ensure “the continued implementation of proactive measures and restrictions” to further arrest the spread of the coronavirus disease.