“The Government is in no way proposing a nationalization of the health system or anything like it.” I assure you Alberto Fernandez a Claudio Belocopitt, the owner of Swiss Medical and president of the Argentine Union of Health Entities (UAS), in the midst of the versions about a plan that would promote Kirchnerism to reformulate the health system, in order for the State to increase its control and presence in the sector.
Both held a two-hour meeting this Tuesday at the Casa Rosada, after the President called the businessman for the explosive statements he had made in the morning, in which critical the suspension of the 7% increase in the fees of prepaid companies and warned about “The infinity of fantasies that have no logic, such as creating a single health system to have full power.” “If you create a single health system, not only are you going to administer it, but you are also going to decide which drug enters and which does not and other issues,” he said.
“According to rumors, all Argentines would be within the same health system. And that is something that would not be necessary to implement if public attention worked well. This would also imply progress on social works… They are all versions, but the truth is that freezing rates below costs is absolutely dangerous “Belocopitt had concluded in a radio interview.
Rumors about changes in Argentina’s health care structure, which concern businessmen in the sector and CGT union members, began to circulate insistently since Cristina Kirchner pointed out at a ceremony in La Plata, on December 19, that “We have to go to an integrated national health system between public, private and social works that optimizes resources.”
Belocopitt told Infobae that, after denying him that he was thinking of nationalizing the health system, Alberto Fernández proposed that the Government and the health companies “Work together” to look for alternatives that compensate for the suspended increase in quotas: the meeting could take place this Wednesday and would piloted by the Chief of Staff, Santiago Cafiero, while the owner of Swiss Medical and other members of the UAS will go through the business sector.
The businessman anticipated that in the meeting with Cafiero they will suggest that the Casa Rosada extend aid mechanisms to health companies that ended on December 31, such as the Emergency Assistance to Work and Production (ATP) program, which had a very important impact among providers: for example, in the most important clinics and sanatoriums, which pay high salaries, state aid covered a quarter of the salary of workers, while in medium and small establishments it oscillated between 40 and 50%.
They will also ask that continue the benefits of decree 300, whose scope ended at the end of the year, which provided that employers in the health area would have a 95% reduction in the aliquot that was destined to Argentine Integrated Pension System (SIPA) with respect to professionals, assistants and technicians in the sector.
“The meeting with the President was good. Given the concern that was generated by the change in the resolution (on the suspended increase to prepaid) and by this battery of rumors about the modification of the health system, he was very clear in telling me that those versions that were circulating were very far from him and assured that in no way was nationalization or anything like it being considered “, the businessman pointed out.
Fernández did not confirm whether this supposed plan comes from the Instituto Patria, but, according to Belocopitt, he admitted that the health system in Argentina “has many benefits” and considered that “It requires changes in form, but not in substance.”
The businessman said that he is not concerned that the Government eventually wants to have greater control over private medicine so that there is more transparency, as is the case in the insurance market. “For us it is not an inconvenience. Companies do things well and everything is transparent ”, stressed.
“I also made it very clear to him that when there are cost increases in medicine, caused by inflation or greater coverage, the only way to balance the health system is with resources, there is no other. The President said that he knows that it is so ”, added Belocopitt.
As for the reason for the reversal of the increase in prepaid fees, the head of state explained to the businessman that He was very concerned about the impact on people’s pockets, but, fundamentally, on the inflationary expectations that it could have generated, although he clarified that it was a “suspension” of the readjustment.
That was when Alberto Fernández suggested “working in the next few hours to find mechanisms aimed at what the impact is more balanced”And did not want to confirm whether he will reinstate the decree that established the increase.
Belocopitt and the directors of the UAS, which groups together the private sector health companies, will hold a Zoom this Wednesday to analyze the situation and finish defining the position that will lead to the meeting with Cafiero.
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