But as activity was deregulated with the new government, the increases multiplied: 40% in December; 30% in January; 20% in February, 19% in March and between 16 and 19% in April.
Paradoxically, The average medical salary in our country was US$350/400 per month, versus between 3,500 and 4,500 for a Uruguayan and 3,000 for a Brazilian. That is, 10 times less.
The debate on the values of prepaid cards, however, focuses on the increasing costs of health, on the one hand, and the impact they have on the pockets of consumers, mostly members of the middle class, such as healthcare professionals.
“The measures adopted so far are meager and do not attack the underlying problem, which is the enormous mass of money that is lost in an anarchic distribution with a monstrous intermediation, a source of corrupt income – doctors and non-doctors -, unionists and other adventurers who They take advantage of the lack of control to sell supplies for values several times higher than foreign prices and thus keep this unvirtuous cycle running,” said Omar López Mato, member of the Chamber of Ophthalmological Medicine (Cameof).
Why are there eight different social works to serve personnel in the oil and related industries? He asks in that direction.
The general secretary of the Chamber of Ophthalmological Medicine (CAMEOF), Juan Ibarguren, meanwhile, had compared the evolution of values between December 2019 and the same month of 2023, that is, in the complete management of Alberto Fernández.
He thus highlighted that the accumulated inflation in those four years was 1,559%, against 1,676% that increased health costs, 1,636% that prepaid medicine companies received and 991% that medical fees were increased.
The scale made it clear that the gap in this period in terms of accumulated values with respect to inflation was 721%. Between 2005 and 2018 it had been 153%.
Definancing, compared against the evolution of costs, would give 838 percent and payment terms averaging 60, 90 and in some cases 120 days.
The accumulated inflation between December 2018 and December 2023 reached 1,175%, while that of the health sector was 1,380%, prepaid medicine companies increased 767% and tariffs adjusted by 690%.
From 2005 to 2020, Social Work and Prepaid Medicine Companies increased their income 46 times, was the conclusion drawn.
Private medicine serves approximately six million people in total: two million are volunteers and four million are workers who belong to a social work administered by a prepaid medicine company.
The skyrocketing increases in fees caused some 200,000 members to switch to public medicine, whose capacity to absorb patients is at a limit, serving just over a third.
The cost of health is not only represented by medical salaries, far from it.
The structure of health spending, three years ago, placed medications at 19 percent of the pie.
The rest was distributed among professionals, sanatoriums, special treatments.
Currently, medications have jumped to 40 percent of that budget.
So not only is there a transfer to the public sector of people who cannot afford the level to which private medicine quotas were raised, but the Argentine Pharmaceutical Confederation reported that in January and February pharmacies sold ten million units of medicines less.
Social and prepaid work
The consulting firm Javier Miglino y Asociados interviewed people from all over the country “with prepaid social work to compare costs with other countries.”
Those interviewed have Osde, Sancor Salud, Omint, Swiss Medical, Galeno, Medicus, Hospital Italiano, Simeco, among others; in values of $290 to 650 thousand per family group (married couple and two children), giving an average cost of $470 thousand.
With the official dollar at $846, it is equivalent to US$555, meaning that Argentina has the highest average cost for private social work in the world, the consulting firm indicated.
And they crossed the data: the average cost for the same benefits (four people), in the United States is US$500, in Spain 440, Italy 460, France 480 and Japan 520.
“Once again we must regret this record, in this case in the medical task, carried out 100 percent by Argentine professionals, in local establishments and with 99% national inputs,” he said.
And he added: “One more example that we Argentines must suffer disproportionate costs, not only in relation to salaries that are very far from those charged in the First World, but also in relation to cost-service, since, in dollars , private medical services are more expensive in our country than in the rest of the world.
The survey was carried out on more than 5 thousand people in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the provinces of Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Córdoba, Santa Fe, Misiones, Neuquén, Río Negro, Salta, Chaco, Corrientes and Formosa.
In many European countries, the health system, including the provision of medicines, works efficiently.
There everyone contributes to a basic and universal health system that is mandatory and to which everyone belongs. This system guarantees minimum, essential and effective access for all citizens.
If someone wants to access more specialized and expensive services, they are free to do so.
However, from the beginning, everyone is covered by this system.
The pioneers of this approach were the Germans, and today, all of developed Europe adopted it.
Unions have no influence in this system.
Source: Ambito
