In the morning, yes; in the afternoon, no. Unusually, the government backed down and He left without effect the authorization that he had given hours before to prepaid to increase fees by 7% next February. The decision to suspend the measure, which had been anticipated to referents of the private health sector, was made official with resolution 2988 of the Ministry of Health, included in a special supplement of the Official Gazette that was published unexpectedly on this last afternoon of 2020.
Resolution 2987 had been published in the morning’s Official Gazette, signed -as well as that of the afternoon- by the Minister of Health Ginés González García. In that regulation, the increase in fees was authorized by up to 7% from the second month of 2021.
One of the recitals of the new provision states that “By express decision of the President of the Nation, the increases are suspended that they were authorized “to prepaid medical entities. The reasons for the change of opinion were not described in a few hours.
The resolution that had authorized the price increases stated that they were reasonable, given the increased costs for the provision of health services. “The representative entities of the sector have expressed their concern about the critical state in which the majority of the providers find themselves”, indicates one of the considerations.
The prices of health plans they increased in this month of December by 10%. Before this increase was officially authorized, a resolution signed by González García had circulated, which established an increase of 15% for this last month of 2020 and another of 10% for February. Finally, at that time that level of adjustments was rejected and only 10% was authorized for December. That time, the measure of the Minister of Health later unauthorized, had not been published in the Official Gazette, as it did now.
Sources in the prepaid sector stated that it had been agreed transfer the resources obtained from the February quota increase to service providers, that days ago they issued a statement with data on the critical situation they claim to be going through. The suspension of the authorization for the increase (an increase that the Government formally recognized as necessary), joins the completion of the aid plan with subsidies for the payment of salaries of health employees (ATP). The officials had informed the companies of the activity that, to help alleviate the effects of the crisis, they would be granted loans from now on, but no longer non-repayable amounts.
“I do not know if the order will come from the Instituto Patria, but something certain is that the decision aggravates the critical situation that the sector is already going through”, pointed out a benchmark of private activity, in reference to the version that circulates among managers regarding the origin of the decision to reverse.
Days ago, the vice president, Cristina Kirchner, argued that there is a need for “rethinking the entire health system” of Argentina. Thus, expressed without precision and in the context of a partisan political act, the phrase caused uncertainty and concern, beyond the fact that health entities have been talking about the need for public policies that address health care problems for many years. health and its increasing costs.
On Thursday 24 of this month, the Argentine Federation of Health Providers -which brings together several entities that associate clinics and other health centers, such as diagnostic ones-, warned that “with cost increases of more than 60%, revenue frozen throughout the yearon the part of national and provincial social works, PAMI and prepaid medicine companies, a strong tax pressure and the end of the ATP program, private health providers We no longer have the necessary budget to provide normal care. “ In the letter they also announced the implementation of measures to reschedule outpatient services, to raise awareness about the situation.
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