BIZ BUZZ: Bane to BPOs: ‘Keep Call Centers in America’ bill
A new bill filed in the United States, called “Keep Call Centers in America Act,” threatens the industry that has become one of the Philippines’ main growth engines.
This was flagged by former lawmaker and Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, who appealed to Malacañang to mobilize opposition to this bill.
Among others, the bill aims to identify US companies that offshore call center jobs and bar them from receiving new federal grants, loans or call center contracts for five years.
The strongest argument that the Philippines can bring to Washington to oppose this measure isn’t simply the loss of jobs, Salceda said.
“The more compelling case is that such a measure will raise costs for American consumers in sectors that are politically sensitive and closely tied to voter concerns,” he said.
An analysis attached to the aide mémoire recently sent by Salceda Research to President Marcos focused on the impact on two crucial sectors: health care and mortgage servicing.
As many hospitals and health systems in the US use offshore call centers for scheduling, billing, insurance verification and patient support, the private think tank estimated that using domestic labor for those functions would increase costs by $136 billion to $166 billion annually for hospitals.
Since 60 percent to 90 percent of such cost increases are typically passed directly to patients and insurers, it will be bad for American consumers.
Salceda Research estimated that the mortgage servicing, on the other hand, could increase annual costs by $97.76 billion if operations were forced onshore.
When distributed across 50 million active mortgages in the US, it would raise costs by $1,955 per year, or $163 per month, for each mortgage.
Given the lose-lose outcome, Salceda called for “quiet but sustained lobbying” with US legislators, committee staff and relevant industry stakeholders.
It’s important to “frame our engagement in terms of the increased costs that Americans will bear in health care and mortgage servicing rather than focusing only on the benefits to the Philippines,” he said.
Client companies with substantial US operations are urged to speak about their reliance on Philippine services in maintaining competitiveness and quality.
Another imperative, Salceda said, is to coordinate with the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines and the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines to compile industry data and present a unified position.
Salceda emphasized that time is of the essence.
“Once a bipartisan bill with such support clears its early committee stages, it becomes much more difficult to stop. Our advantage lies in the fact that we have credible quantitative evidence and a strong economic argument that keeping Philippine call centers is in the interest of American voters. To use that advantage effectively, we must engage before the measure gains unstoppable momentum,” he said.
