With the recent announcement that the ‘U’ Party and the Conservative Party would no longer support the development of the health reform presented by the GovernmentPresident Gustavo Petro and his minister Carolina Corcho were left without the necessary support so that the text can follow its legislative course.
(Also read: Without conservatives and ‘the U’, health reform remains under reserved prognosis)
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Everything arose, as this newspaper was able to learn, because, despite the fact that extensive meetings were held between party leaders, technicians and members of the Government – in which ‘red lines’ were agreed that should not be crossed-, In the end, the reform text that the government presented to the parties remained essentially the same as the one originally presented and did not reflect the recommendations they had made.
Given this, Dilian Francisca Toro, president of the ‘U’ Party, assured that they would work in Present your own reform proposal that includes the recommendations that the parties have been making in recent days.
“After receiving the presentation of the health reform project, we found that the agreed agreements are not contemplated, for which reason We will present an alternative paper that includes the proposals presented by the parties to save lives”, assured Toro following receiving the document sent by the Government.
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But what will this reform proposal that now raises ‘the U’ bring? According to what the representative of the Chamber, Víctor Salcedo, who was delegated by Toro to respond to this issue, told this newspaper, the idea is to incorporate issues such as the permanence of a mixed system, which has the same conditions for private companies as for the public ones.
Also, that the EPS remain, but that they have fewer responsibilities and are an actor with a more limited scope that does not have the capacity, as today, to contract only among its own clinics and “decide by hand who pays.”
But that they continue in a job as managers for which they obtain a payment of between 5% to 8% for work carried out that depends on the effectiveness, efficiency and quality with which they provide their services.
“We have proposed that insurers receive 5% for their work and reach up to 8%, but depending on the operation, the quality of the service and the speed of attention,” says the congressman.
(Also read: “It is false to say that the health reform collapsed”: President of the Chamber)
Salcedo, who is part of the Seventh Commission of the House of Representatives in charge of reviewing and approving some of the health reforms that have been proposed, also adds that they are also “friends” of the idea that the Adres make the direct turn to clinics and hospitals, and the need to strengthen primary health care.
With that, he says, what they will seek is to guarantee the governance of the system and the insurance of citizens.
According to the congressman, there is still no date to present said project and the truth is that there is still a possibility that it will not be presented. According to him, that will depend on whether the Government finally incorporates, in the presentation it makes, the recommendations that both ‘the U’ and the Conservatives have been asking for in recent days.
“Tomorrow if there is a presentation, in case it contains those points, then we will accompany it. (…) If the Government adjusts on these realities that I have just mentioned, then we will go with them. The government has the ball if they make the adjustments, or if there will be no alternate presentation,” Salcedo concluded.
EDWIN CAICEDO | HEALTH UNIT