Carolina Corcho, the Minister of Health and Social Protection, led the socialization of the reform in Congress. There, the official responded to the current concerns regarding the bill, such as: the function of the Adres, the role of the New EPS, the focus of the reform on primary health care and financing.
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For his part, Corcho referred to the fact that “The bill seeks the transformation of the health system” compared to what he insisted that with her “It is going to build on what has been built and the accruals of the health system are recognized.”
He also stressed that this initiative maintains “The financial protection achieved by Law 100 for the coverage of treatments and benefits of health services”. So he pointed out that “This protection is the principle of solidarity in financing the system given by resources from the General Budget of the Nation (PNG), from taxation and given by parafiscality resources (…) which means that who does not get sick is who finance who gets sick “, stated the Minister.
The head of the portfolio exposed the debt of the EPS, of which it is estimated that the active ones currently owe $16.6 trillion, while those that are in liquidation still have obligations for $5 trillion. For his part, those settled between 2016 and 2022 have a debt of $1.7 trillion, while those settled between 2003 and 2015 owe $407,836 million. Therefore, the total figure reaches $23.8 trillion.
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Regarding the Administrator of the Resources of the General Social Security System (Adres), which is now in charge of “collect all the resources of taxation and parafiscality”for which the Minister indicated that this entity will continue with this function, with which she mentioned that “A state fund will not be created” for health resources.
Also, he emphasized that “there should be a single payer (referring to the Adres fund” that will be “deconcentrated and not decentralized.”
As stated in the reform document, the new EPS It would have a fundamental role in the grouping of patients that come from liquidated EPS. The minister emphasized that “Since the Government is a partner, having 49% of the shares, it can make its demands as a partner”.
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Another of the focuses that the head of the portfolio explained was Primary Health Care. According to Corcho, the Government pays $6.6 billion to the EPS per year for managing the health system, while covering the “Deep Columbia” with primary care it would cost $8.7 billion. That money, he added, would come from the more than $80 billion that the system has.
It is expected that in the next few days the debates will begin in which the Legislature will discuss the articles of the project that the Minister of Health presented.
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