Colombia: controversial health reform presented 

Colombian President Gustavo Petro presented a controversial health reform to lawmakers on Monday (13).

According to his government, it aims to improve primary care, expand access to treatment, raise salaries for healthcare workers, and fight corruption by eliminating the private sector’s management of payments.

The health reform is one of several key initiatives Petro, who took office just over six months ago, is pushing to combat inequality, exclusion, and poverty in the Andean country.

“We want doctors to be able to go anywhere in the country and treat anyone, for the country to be organized so that people, residents, can always be cared for by medical professionals,” Petro said in presenting the bill to Congress.

Originally, the government wanted to abolish private health care providers (EPS) and instead entrust municipal and provincial officials with this task.

Critics said this would politicize health care and lead to corruption.

Colombia’s health care system, in which workers pay to join a particular health insurance plan, has long suffered from rampant corruption, and there are recurring complaints of patients dying due to lack of care.

The state covers medical costs for people who cannot afford them.

Petro’s success in building a broad coalition in Congress with support from across the political spectrum helped him pass tax reform last year but plans to take health care out of the hands of the EPS created tensions in that alliance and within his cabinet.

Coalition heavyweights such as Senate President Roy Barreras and Education Minister Alejandro Gaviria, who headed the Health Ministry in a previous administration, spoke out against the reform.

Petro and Health Minister Carolina Corcho have since backed down and want to strip EPS providers of health care. However, the bill calls for creating a government agency to centralize payments currently made by EPS to clinics and hospitals to ensure quick disbursements.

According to recent reports, hospitals and clinics throughout Colombia are waiting for payments from EPS totaling about COL$11.5 trillion (about US$2.4 billion).

The bill also calls for the creation of primary care centers to ensure rapid care for all patients. Many Colombians receive medical care through emergency services, overburdening the health system.