Health reform: how would the new system, emergencies and prepaid medicine work?

Radio Blue
exclusively released a document that contains what would be the proposal of
health reform
. “This document is the one that the Minister of Health, Carolina Corcho, and her closest circle have presented in recent days to different instances, including the economic sector of the Government of President Gustavo Petro to give financial support to this project,” he explained. in Noticias Caracol Ricardo Ospina, director of the information service of the station.

Why would EPS disappear?

Although Minister Corcho and Pedro Santana, one of the Ministry’s advisers, have said in different scenarios that the EPS would not disappear, according to Ospina “The truth is that you do see they are going to end up as we know them today.”

As he explained, with this reform, EPS “would only have a chance to exist as a hospital infrastructure, that is to say, clinics and hospitals that have the EPS could eventually serve for specialized health care, which today are third and fourth level hospitals, but as we know today the EPS, which are the ones that manage the entire system, are going to disappear”.

universal system

In this sense, Ospina pointed out that “What is created here is a large infrastructure, a number of different instances that are going to assume what the EPS do today and that figure will only be in those sites that have the capacity to provide their clinics and hospitals for patient care, but in thick lines the system is going to be universal, it is going to be state-owned, what we know today as the subsidized regime and the contributory regime will disappear and we will only talk about a universal system for all Colombians”.

How will the new system work?

“It has two very important parts, one is primary health care (APIS) and the center of medium and high complexity (RISS).”

APIS: These are going to be managed by the health secretariats of each municipality and each department, ADRES is going to transfer the resources directly to them. The project seeks to have one primary health care center for every 20,000 inhabitants and each Colombian would have to register with their family, Ospina explained. In these centers, people would go for consultations, for medication or a particular test, if necessary, they would be referred to a center of medium and high complexity.

CRACK: This is where the private part of the system comes in, because 70% of the clinics and hospitals in Colombia of high and medium complexity are private, and what the reform does is that it tells the EPS and private clinics if they want to participate they can enter this part of the health care scheme, added Ospina.

Emergencies in the municipalities

The municipal and district health directorates will be responsible for the single pre-hospital emergency care service, which may be integrated with emergency services, such as the fire brigade or the Red Cross. Likewise, they are responsible for coordinating the emergency network, basic home care services for people with limited mobility and homeless people or people in a precarious social condition.

prepaid

Private companies whose corporate purpose is the sale of prepaid or voluntary health plans may continue to operate and market their services in the country, but eThese will be totally independent from the social health security system and will have no relationship with its financing.

The transition regime of the social security system in health, including the entities and elements that comprise it, will have a maximum term of two years, which will be counted from the effective date of this law to start its operation.