Petro responds to the objections of his ministers about health reform

After a letter sent to the Minister of Health by several members of the cabinet, in which they expressed their objections to the health reform, became known, President Gustavo Petro referred to the document and said that after a meeting in the that the letter was analyzed, “The discussion produced changes to the project and different pictures of fiscal impact.”

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“The letter published in the media by some of my ministers about the health reform is true. It was discussed for hours and days, by myself and by the technical teams designated for it. I held a meeting with the EPS thus”, assured the head of state, through his Twitter account, confirming the existence of the letter.

According to the document, the officials state that the reform, as it has been proposed, would have additional expenses for primary care since they would go from $16.9 trillion in 2023 to $31.3 trillion. That is, an increase of more than $14 billion.

(Several Petro ministers show their objections to the health reform).

“The Ministry of Finance takes into consideration that the project under analysis, if sanctioned as a law, would have an impact on the Nation’s finances,” reads the document, which specifies that, with the proposed reform, spending on primary health care would grow, on average, $2.5 trillion each year.

The ministers of Finance, Education and Agriculturethey would be the ones who would have alerted, that “If all the expenses proposed by the reform are carried out, the fiscal cost of the initiative would be, for the first year, around an additional $16.91 trillion and, for the second, an additional $21.8 trillion. Between 2025 and 2028, spending would increase, on average, by $2 trillion a year.”

Regarding the issue, Petro assured that in the analysis of the letter there were changes in the project and different tables of fiscal impact.

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“The initial table has costs that are independent of the reform and should not have been included such as the payment of services to foreigners, the labor formalization or the payment of the hospital debt,” said. However, the President stated that these costs “You have to pay them with or without reform and they are not due to it”.

After the messages, the President presented a new table that, according to him, was updated after the discussion:

Finally, the president insisted that the popular mandate he received from his voters is that of change. “The health project presented to Congress presents the essential foundations of our proposal presented in the electoral campaign to the entire Colombian society and has my full support,” concluded.

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