Health reform: one of the central issues in the Council of Ministers of Petro Government

The Council of Ministers convened by President Gustavo Petro and which will take place in the next few hours in Villa de Leyva, Boyaca, while it is wide. There are many issues that must be dealt with, especially the orientation that the heads of each portfolio will receive in relation to the answers to the reforms that will be left in the hands of the Congress of the Republic.

One of the reforms that has generated the most controversy is related to health, defended tooth and nail by Minister Carolina Corcho and who lack of pedagogy that is criticized, However, she has argued on several occasions that related socialization spaces are arising.

For example, it is already clear that the proposal will seek to eliminate EPS, because The national government believes that currently the financial intermediation and administration of the resources of these private companies is not efficient enough.

The prospect of this actor disappearing in the health system has raised alarm bells in various sectors, indicating that no state entity has sufficient expertise to handle the functions that EPS performs today.

according to the schedule known by WeekIn the month of February, the filing of health reform is expected, the first of three major official projects for this year, and in March the proposed amendments to pension and labor issues will be presented. March 16 was the date given by Labor Minister Gloria Ines Ramirez for these two legislative initiatives.

The motive is that health reform is finishing its fourth regulatory debate in the month of May. And be ready to reconcile when the need arises. And in the same month projects on pension and labor issues are due to reach a third debate.

For the month of June, the government hopes that like pension, there will be a final debate on labor reform. At that point, it is expected that some of the constitutional reforms that have been in process since last year will also be ready, such as political reform and the one that makes farmers subject to rights.

Carolina Corco’s Class and the Controversial Health Reform That Has the Country in Panic

The country is gearing up for one of the most important debates in recent years that promises to be a real litmus test for President Gustavo Petro: the announced health reform. The government’s initiative, which will reach Congress within weeks, sparked a storm of criticism and panic among Colombians over its dire implications.

This week, during a meeting with the historic treaty bench in Paipa, Carolina Corcho, the health minister, explained that the reform has been brewing for seven years and has the support of various medical organizations. The officer said that she is not alone. Who are his watchmen? Who are you betting on? What is the model that can leapfrog into the void instead of improving access and quality?

The Colombian Medical Federation, a union that was born in 1934 and fiercely opposed President Ivan Duque’s management during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been a springboard of sorts for Corcho.

She was vice-president of that association, which was headed by Sergio Isaza Villa, a pediatrician at the Universidad del Rosario and a trusted person of the minister. He is a staunch defender of a reform that does not deny the entire Council of Ministers or Congressman Roy Barres.

Semana spoke to Isaza, who explained what was being sought. In short, financial intermediation is eliminated, and collections and payments will be made directly through ADRES (Administrator of Resources of the Common System of Social Security in Health). The Colombians, monthly, would contribute there. The objective is that there are ADRES offices in 32 departments.

According to Isaza, each sector would have a manager appointed by meritocracy, and a board of directors composed of businessmen, workers, and the government. He will be in charge of the appointment of 32 office bearers, who will be added to the figure of free appointments and removals. “Health management is not entrusted to mayors and governors. Address will distribute the resources”, assured Isazza.

He also said that a single public integrated information system would be created. “It will be state-of-the-art with artificial intelligence. Not every data can be deleted or manipulated. The information will be encrypted every three minutes and will be impossible to change. In other words, every load carried, every medicine delivered and every medical act cannot be adulterated”, explained the pediatrician.

And what about the EPS, which play a fundamental role in the system and whose abolition Colombians do not support, as polls have shown? Isaza was blunt: “The articles do not even mention the name of the EPS.” It is clear that they can disappear and they will not manage the funds. Reform says that in addition to its long experience in providing services, Address can contract the lease of EPS’ entire hospital infrastructure.

Contributory and subsidized regimes will disappear and there will be a universal one, with equal conditions for contributors. According to Isaza, insurance is covered and will be exclusively controlled by the state. “People will not need to ask for authorization or pay co-payments or carry papers from one place to another for taking appointments. This will be done directly by the system,” he said.

Similarly, there will be one health center or clinic for every 20,000 residents. Anyone who becomes ill with a delicate mutilation should go to the nearest place and a doctor will refer the case. “For example: if it is cancer and the person lives in Usaquen, Bogotá, they will be referred to the Oncology Plan of the Santa Fe Foundation; if you live in Las Cruces, go to the Oncology Institute,” Isaza said. Told.

The pediatrician revealed that the reform speaks of an incentive for the development of the national pharmaceutical industry, the production of vaccines and serums. And he says that Colombians will not have to look for doctors, but they will be the ones who look for patients.

Also promised are 3,000 primary care centres, job formalization of health workers in the public sector and a two-year transition period between one model to another. This is to say that Gustavo Petro’s government would only survive the collapse of the system for a year and a half.

those behind

On the website of the Colombian Medical Federation, reform is the protagonist. Cork has articles and explanations. Isaza wrote an editorial titled: ‘To improve health, let us all go together!’. The reality is that the project generates more division than consensus.

Isaza said that he did not campaign for Petro. “It’s statutorily prohibited. There are liberals in the union, Goths, from the left, from the right”, he explained. However, critics say that Corcho and the Federation are left-wing activists.

There are other organizations behind the reform, such as the Association of High-Cost Patients, the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, Ifarma, the Association of State Social Enterprises, the Roundtable for the Right to Health of Antioquia, Asesi and the Latin American Corporation of the South. They all joined a committee in President Petro’s office today to prepare the initiative to comply with the court’s decision. Some of its representatives work in the Ministry of Health sponsored by Corcho.

Among them is Luis Alberto Martínez, who is today the Deputy Minister of Social Protection. He is a dentist from the University of Antioquia, specialist in healthcare administration, with a master’s degree in administration, government and public policy. Similar to Francisco Augusto Giuseppe Rossi, who for many years directed the Ifirma Foundation, an association that was part of the commission that estimated the Articles of Reform, and was appointed director of Invima. He is a doctor from the University of Javeriana and a specialist in epidemiology from the University of Antioquia.

Another doctor close to Corcho is Oscar Angel, vice president of drug policy for the Colombian Medical Federation. For example, he was instrumental in the creation of the Information Systems chapter.

There is also Pedro Santana, who is part of the South Latin American Corporation. According to the records of the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, Minister Corcho belongs to the board of directors of that foundation. It aims to “promote the strengthening of a social, democratic and legal state”; promoting peace building; To promote and protect the rights of the victims and of the Colombian society”.

The case prompted Enrique Gómez Martínez, former Salvación Nacional presidential candidate, to file a disciplinary complaint against Corcho to the Attorney General’s Office. “She consults and socializes herself. It’s a joke,” Gomez said.

These unions consolidated a draft reform over the past two years. In the last presidential elections, six candidates took the initiative and Petro adopted it for his government plan. “When he saw it, he said it was what he thought. Already as president, he treated it as such”, Corcho told congressmen of the historic treaty in Paippa.

There, the minister said that he analyzed the health programs of Petro and Rodolfo Hernández and found coincidences. “I saw myself in tight tights because the program was practically the same,” he said. For this reason, he said that the more than 21 million Colombians who will vote in the second presidential round in June 2022 also supported the said proposal.

To finalize the commitment, the committee sought the advice of former Constitutional Court magistrates including Manuel José Cepeda, along with a group of lawyers and economists from the National, Santo Tomás and Rosario universities.

Reform is about to enter Congress. These days, the details of its economic and financial motivation are being refined, and are reviewed by the Minister of Finance, José Antonio Ocampo, and the Director of the Department of National Planning, Jorge Iván González. Once it reaches the Legislature, the debate promises to be even more intense. No one would want to make amends with the health of the Colombian people. Life is in between.