After ordering reverse gear in the increase of the prepaid, the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, announced tonight that The Government will fine health companies that fail to comply with the opinion of the National Commission for the Defense of Competition and the protection presented by the Superintendence of Health Services.
Given the questions received on social networks, the head of the Treasury Palace came out to clarify that companies must comply with the provision that orders roll back the values of the plans as of December 2023 and, from there, increase by the Consumer Price Index of the following months.
The Government will fine prepaid companies that do not lower the prices of the plans
“On Thursday we are going to clarify the formula so there are no doubts”, expressed Caputo through his social network account “X”, in relation to the calculation that users should make to verify the true value that prepaid companies should charge them in the final price of the invoices. In addition, he announced that “a channel for complaints will be opened for invoices that do not comply with what is regulated and agreed upon.”
The minister announced that if companies fail to comply with the determined formula “a fine will be applied.” And he clarified that the amount that will be imposed will be determined by a percentage of the annual billing, which he said will be “very large.”
“Anti-competitive conduct”, the Government’s complaint against prepaid companies
In the middle of the month, the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, communicated the Government’s decision to order social works and prepaid to give go back with the increases. The value of the quotas must be backdated to December 2023 and from there they will be updated based on inflation.
As reported by the national government through an official statement, “in the framework of an investigation into alleged anti-competitive conduct that began in mid-January of this year, the National Commission for the Defense of Competition (CNDC) determined that There are multiple indications of a collusive agreement between the main companies of prepaid medicine in the country”.
This is how the Government of Javier Milei, after deregulating prepaid prices through the current DNU 70/2023, goes back the same prepaid prices to December last year due to increases that already average 165% so far this year.
To the extent, the Government proposed to the Justice a formula for returning the surplus between the 70% which gave the cost of view and the 140% average increase applied by the main prepaid.
In the appeal for protection, they propose the refund of 70% in seven equal and consecutive installments, taking into account the CPI that is issued each month from the National Institute of Statistics and Census.
The protection states that “an increase of around 150% by the prepaid medicine entities when, according to the recorded rates, it appears that the increase amounts to approximately 70%.”
Thus, If a month there is an inflation of 10%, the prepaid companies would not charge any increase, since this value would be compensated by the reimbursement figure that they have to make to the affiliates. In the event that inflation is 8%, 2% must be returned to customers.
Source: Ambito
