Boric announces free public health care for Chileans, similar to what Brazil has had for years

Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced Thursday (28) that the country’s public health care system would be free for the entire population starting Sept. 1. This measure was one of Boric’s election promises.

Chile has a cost-sharing model in which users must pay for services used in public hospitals.

This change will benefit more than 5 million Chileans, especially the middle class. Today, people older than 60 or with an income of less than US$420 per month are exempt from the levy.

“Many generations of Chileans have dreamed of what we are making a reality today, which is a public health system that is free for every user of Fonasa [Chile’s National Health Fund],” Boric said in a speech posted on his Twitter account. “Health must be a right,” he added.

Chile’s new constitution, which will be voted on in a referendum on Sept. 4, 2022, calls for creating a national health system with public funding.

WHO (World Health Organization) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated the measure on Twitter. “We congratulate the Chilean government on its decision to cover all health expenses for 6 million Chileans. This is a great step toward its commitment to health for all,” he wrote.

The Chilean government’s official Twitter profile posted, “We understand health as a right, and the state must guarantee it.”

BRAZILIAN SUS SYSTEM

Brazil’s SUS is the country’s publicly funded health care system. Created in 1989, the SUS is the largest government-run public health care system in the world by number of beneficiaries/users (virtually 100% of the Brazilian population; 213 million people), land area coverage (3.3 million square miles), and affiliated network/number of treatment centers (over 50,000 clinics).

The system is free of cost at the point of service for any person, including foreigners.