The Commercial Chamber confirmed a precautionary measure that prohibits a prepaid medicine company from increasing the monthly fee of a member due to their advanced age. The court, with the signature of the cameramen Pablo Heredia, Gerardo Vassallo and Juan Garibotto, dismissed a claim by the company Swiss Medical SA, which had appealed the measure ordered in the first instance in favor of an elderly affiliate.
The ruling understood configured the two basic principles of a precautionary measure, the danger of delay and the credibility of the law. This means that it is possible that the person who made the claim is right and that if a decision is delayed it might cause an irreparable burden, for example death due to lack of adequate medical care.
“The increase (of the quota) due to age applied by the prepaid medicine company clearly involves the constitutional right to health”, the court held.
The injunction had been upheld in that instance by the attorney general before the Gabriela Boquín Chamber. The decision explains that the increase – applied in this case to a member of a family group who exceeded 60 years of age – “might be abusive”, even when “were contractually provided for.
Swiss Medical claimed the contractual right to increase the fee because “the increases had been foreseen in the contract, among whose clauses the change of quota category was foreseen when any of the members of the family group reached a certain age”. But prosecutor Boquín refuted on the basis of the right to health: “greater importance is attached to preventing the damage from being caused than to subsequent repair”.
It is worth clarifying that the ruling is not final, although it establishes that the prepaid medicine company will not be able to collect the intended increase, at least until the substance of the matter is defined, that is, if it is legal or abusive.
