Just before the National Government issued Decree 2497 this weekend – which legalizes the discount of up to 50% of the SOAT price for vehicles such as motorcycles, taxis, urban minibuses, business vehicles, urban public service, buses, among others. others–, the Attorney General’s Office notified a harsh alert to the Ministry of Health. Attorney Margarita Cabello warned that this decree directly affects the budget for the health system.
“If the income from SOAT decreases, health protection will decrease and it would be up to you to remove the coverage of this accident rate and accidents from the national budget,” said the head of the Public Ministry.
For the official, this eventual underfunding affects health, hospitals, and the coverage of accidents and people injured in events involving motorcycles, including those covered by SOAT.
And it is precisely in this spiral of negative consequences due to the reduction in compulsory insurance that the background of the alert is found –which is not only made by the Attorney General’s Office, but also by health and mobility experts– and its impact on the health system and its finance. Two words are key: evasion and accident.
According to reports from the Single National Traffic Registry, in Colombia there are 17.8 million vehicles, of which 10.8 million (60.67%) are motorcycles and 7 million (39.33%) are cars. Of this total number of vehicles, according to the Federation of Colombian Insurers, 8.5 million vehicles (47.75%) do not have it in force; that is, its owner evades payment.
And, on the other hand, data from the National Road Safety Agency indicate that the accident rate on the country’s roads increased by 14.03%, since it went from 5,768 deaths -in 2021- to 6,577 so far in 2022.
These two factors create a perfect scenario for definancing, the worst enemy of any system.
The SOAT does not have all the resources that it should have due to evasion, but at the same time the road accident rate (which must be attended to in health with these resources) has increased. So, there are more traffic accidents to deal with, but with fewer resources that the insurance needs to be balanced.
Regarding SOAT, the Government announced in November that it would lower its price by 50% and this weekend issued the decree to carry it out; It is expected to reduce the evasion of your payment (which is at 47.75%), as well as to facilitate access to this insurance.
To understand this roll, it is worth explaining how SOAT works. It is a payment that, as its name says, is mandatory (at least on paper) for everyone who has a motorized vehicle.
This is obtained through one of the insurers that have an agreement to do so (such as Suramericana, Bolívar or Axxa Colpatria) and, once its value is paid, it is valid for one year.
Through this insurance, drivers are protected once morest possible traffic accidents in which there may be injuries that require medical attention in a care center. These expenses are borne by SOAT.
Its price varies depending on the model of the vehicle, its size, its cylinder capacity or its commercial value, among others, so that it is a progressive tax (the higher the income level, the higher the percentage of taxes to be paid).
And what does this have to do with the health system?
The disciplinary control body is concerned regarding three aspects.
The first, the uncertainty in the network of public and private providers, those who provide the health service to the injured; the second, the deficiencies of the Administrator of the Resources of the General System of Social Security in Health (Adres) to carry out audits; and, third, restrictive behaviors that affect the patient at the time of care in a traffic accident.
Likewise, he warned that the decree provides for a decrease in the coverage of the services provided by this insurance, going from 800 to 300 minimum wages for a group of vehicle categories with differential risk ranges.
The translation of this can be summarized in that, as SOAT income will decrease due to the reduction in its cost, the amount of money to attend to the number of road accidents (which have increased) will decrease.
For example, when a traffic accident injury runs out of SOAT quota in medical care, the expenses are borne by your EPS, for which the cost of care comes from the Capitation Payment Unit (resources that the State gives annually for each member of the system) to cover the gap.
With everything and that, in addition, the UPC for 2023, according to the Attorney General’s Office and medical organizations, will be insufficient to maintain financial balance, not counting this warning regarding SOAT.
From there comes the impact that the decision to lower the cost of compulsory insurance can generate in the country’s health system.
What do the experts say?
If two people from the academy consulted by EL COLOMBIANO agree on anything regarding the impact of this reduction on the health system, it is that it will be negative and that it will deepen the problems that it already has and the mandatory insurance.
For the mobility researcher and professor at the Javeriana University, Darío Hidalgo, it will be serious because “coverage is being lowered and some injured people need more interventions and they will not have coverage except up to the limit that it is, or it would come from other sources.”
Similarly, the health expert and professor of economics at the Universidad del Rosario, Paúl Rodríguez, says that the impact will be negative, since “it does not solve anything, it is only becoming cheaper so that more people pay for it, but it is not does nothing to make it so, such as increasing controls and renewing the registration of cars. There are no more efforts on that side and they affect the finances of the sector”.
Finally, Hidalgo adds that “the only way they pay more is by exercising strict control with the Police in the streets or with the cameras to control the payment of the SOAT.” Likewise, Rodríguez wonders: “Where is the money going to come from to deal with traffic accidents? It should be from an addition that came from the UPC”.
Until the closing of this edition, the Ministry of Health has not ruled on this warning. Meanwhile, the health portfolio has a hot potato that can bring it much applause from the pressure groups that oppose the rise of the SOAT (such as that of the motorcyclists), but, deep down and as Hidalgo said, it can be “A wrong instrument when those who suffer the most from accidents are motorcyclists”
50%
It will be the reduction of the SOAT that the Government of Gustavo Petro decreed this Saturday.