Organizations warn that the health system crisis is an emergency and demand that the UPC improve the service by 2026.
Various social groups, patient organizations, medical unions, universities and actors in the health sectorthey launched a new alert for the current financial crisis of the Colombian health system.
They affirm that the crisis has deepened to the point of becoming a humanitarian emergency. They warned that the insufficiency of the Capitation Payment Unit (UPC) by 2026 It is generating direct consequences on the life and health of patients.
Through a public statement, the Pact for Better Health and All for Health they demanded National Government immediately and technically correct the UPC 2026guarantee its real sufficiency and fully comply with the orders of the Constitutional Courtespecially the provisions of the Auto 2049 of 2025.
According to representatives of the health sector, the deterioration of the system already translates into interruption of treatments, medication shortage, increase in preventable deaths, job insecurity of human talent in health and a historical growth of guardianship actions.
“This crisis is not a perception, it is widely documented by patient organizations, control bodies, the Constitutional Court and technical studies based on official information,” they noted.
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Irreversible consequences
Patient organizations have warned about the irreversible impact of the crisis. The Colombian Federation of Rare Diseases (FECOER) denounced the death of thousands of people with orphan diseases.
Meanwhile, the Colombian Association of Liver and Kidney Patients described the situation as a unprecedented health crisischaracterized by systematic access barriers to the services and repeated failure to comply with court orders.
Faced with this scenario, this last organization reported that it went to the Inter-American Human Rights System to request precautionary protection measuresarguing a systematic transgression of the fundamental right to health in Colombia.
Alerts and critical figures
The Attorney General’s Office has also repeatedly warned about the deterioration of the financial sustainability of the system and the massive violation of the right to health.
He pointed out that between 2022 and 2025 a was recorded exponential increase in complaints and protectionswhich in 2024 they reached 1.6 million complaints and more than 265,000 guardianshipsdisproportionately affecting the most vulnerable population.
Added to this is that the Accumulated debts of the health system exceed $32.9 billiona figure that, according to the groups, puts into serious risk to continuity of care and the stability of hospitals, clinics and other service providers.
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Constitutional order unfulfilled
In it Auto 2049 of 2025the Constitutional Court reiterated that the National Government has the obligation to ensure the sufficiency of the UPCcorrectly apply the calculation methodology and ensure the timely flow of resources.
For the signatories of the statement, the failure to comply with these orders It is not a technical debate, but rather a direct violation of the fundamental right to healthwith possible legal consequences.
According to technical analyzes based on official information from the Ministry of Healththe UPC 2026 should be adjusted between 15% and 17.33%in order to reflect the actual system expensethe inflation and the increase in the use of services.
Maintain a Insufficient CPUthey warned, would deepen the crisis and would multiply judicial actions.
“It is not optional, it is a must”
In the statement, they emphasized that the Health cannot be managed from the denial of technical and legal evidence. Therefore, they demanded put patients at the center of the systemprotect the working conditions of human talent in health and attend to the warnings from control bodies.
“Correcting UPC 2026 is not optional: it’s a constitutional, institutional and humanitarian duty“, they concluded.
The statement has the support of dozens of patient organizationsscientific associations, universities, clinics, business associations, union centers and former ministers and former vice ministers of Healthwho agreed that the UPC correction It is an urgent measure to prevent the health system crisis continues to claim lives in the country.
Source: Integrated Information System
