:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/G6EIDGDGYVFUHKB7R4VB7CK464.jpeg "Health reform: the EPS of the subsidized plan are worried 1")
The EPS of the subsidized regime are worried about the health reform of the government of Gustavo Petro. These were presented to the Seventh Committee of the House of Representatives, which held the first public hearing on the project on March 8. The person in charge of presenting the concerns of the EPS was Carmen Eugenia Dávila, director of Salute to the starsthe union of the entities of the subsidized plan.
Dávila began his speech by thanking the president for the desire for consensus and dialogue Gustavo Petro came forward for the debate on health reform. She immediately pointed out the concerns that persist in the union she represents.
One of his concerns is the role that the EPS will play in the system proposed by the reform project, since he warned that this new health system forces them to submit to a tariff regime that completely reduces the possibilities of functioning. He also insisted that the EPS have played “a fundamental role” in ensuring that vulnerable communities can access health services.
Dávila also pointed out that the disappearance of the EPS, some due to financial insolvency, not only had problems with the money that the state had given them, but also for different problems: “It is one thing that the EPS have wasted resources, another thing is that for different problems, including travel problems, they had to disappear,” explained Dávila.
The director of Gestarsalud also stressed that the union is concerned about the management of public funds and the fiscal impact of the reform: “We see a risk that the resources will be used for purposes other than social security.”
Dávila, in an interview with GlobeLiveMedia Colombia, had already pointed out that among the risks of the reform is the lack of articulation between the primary care centers (CAP) and the second and third level care centers and the bureaucratization of the system.
“We consider it important to improve certain aspects of the system and in this sense, we agreed on a reform that builds on what had already been built. But, what we see in the proposal is the opposite: it destroys what has been built and I believe that it is not good for anyone, neither for the millions of people and Colombians, nor for human talent in terms of health, nor for the public officials who have helped and who have contributed to the construction of this system. But, fundamentally, it is inconvenient for people and beneficiaries of the health system,” Dávila warned at the time.
Regarding the financial viability of the new system, Dávila pointed out that “in the proposed scheme, the entities provide services with estimated historical budgets. So, when the budget is exhausted, what happened 30 years ago will happen: we won’t go any further”.
The Colombian health system is made up of the EPS of the subsidized system, which Salute to the starsand those of the contributory scheme, which includes Novice. The latter, led by Paula Acosta, its director, said it had five concerns regarding the health reform currently being processed in the Congress of the Republic.
The first concern concerns the loss of access to the rights of patients and actors in the system. The second, the governance of the system, since they warn that the reform “plans to build new institutional capacities”. Third, the lack of clarity on how the new system will be supported financially. The fourth, the lack of clarity in the transition, and the fifth, the extraordinary powers that the national government would have at the head of President Petro.