“Somehow we will have to make them compete and understand that it is part of a cultural change,” said the Minister of Economy in a television interview.
The Minister of Economy of the Nation, Luis Caputowas very harsh this Friday with prepaids, maintaining that “the hand was turned again” with the increasesenabled from the price deregulation planned by the mega DNU 70/23 of the Government and that involved a 40% in January, 27% in February and 20% in March. In addition, a new increase is planned for April.
During an interview with journalist Jonatan Viale on the TN channel, the official maintained that businessmen have to “bet on the country” even if this year “they have to lose.”
“They were given the upper hand and I get angry because it is a clear case of an increase above inflation”expressed Caputo and analyzed: “For me it is not just an economic issue, and we talked about that in the meeting with supermarkets: it is not enough with the vote alone. We are going with a different model. Logically I can understand that in the DNA of the Argentine culturally it is that everything is going to go wrong, “But we all have to understand that for the country to change we all have to change something, starting with the businessmen.”.
Regarding what will happen to the prices of health companies in the future, the minister reported that the Government is “seeing what can be done.” “We had a meeting about this prepaid issue. Somehow we will have to make them compete and understand that it is part of a cultural change,” he concluded.
Prepaid payments will increase another 20% in April
Despite the various precautionary measures that apply against the DNU of Javier Milei, Prepaid medicine companies are preparing to authorize a new increase in plans starting in April due to a new tax ordered by the current government. It is estimated that the increases will be between 16 and 19%.
For what is this? According to representatives of the main companies in the sector, the increase that will arrive next month has its explanation in the decree of necessity and urgency. 70/2023 dictated by Milei last December, in which, in addition to enabling deregulation, it ordered the creation of a new tax.
The new tax burden is twenty% on the additional payments that a worker pays for a plan that exceeds the one offered by his social work.
The destination of the money collected by the companies will go to the Solidarity Redistribution Fund (FSR)which aims to guarantee coverage of the Mandatory Medical Plan (PMO) – that is, the minimum benefits – to all members of the system, in addition to compensating extraordinary costs for special benefits or complex treatments.
With the new increase, Private medicine will have its fourth consecutive increase above double digits. This increase is added to the 40% in January, 27% in February and 20% in March.
Source: Ambito
