Another increase in prepaid payments in April due to Milei’s DNU: they increase by more than 100% accumulated

The companies of prepaid medicine This week they began to inform their partners another rise of the quota, which will reach an average of 16% in April. In January they increased an average of 40%, in February 27.5%, in March an average of 20% and next month there will be another adjustment. Under the Milei government, fees rose 108.2% on average thanks to the mega DNU.

He mega DNU by Milei and Federico Sturzenegger (author of the text) is still in force, a package with serious consequences for the working class since, among other things, it eliminates the rental law and enables private health companies to establish their quotas as they see fit.

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The prepaid company Medicus informed its members that “as is public knowledge, prepaid medicine companies have been seriously affected, in recent years, by assuming the maintenance of a medical service with quota values ​​lower than the inflationary context, until the limit of the very survival of the private health sector. We have absorbed, at the same time, the increase in medical supplies, prostheses, medications and the addition of new coverage, which adds to the inflation that has been generated in recent months.” . And he added that “for these reasons, your medical plan fee for the month of April will have an increase of 15.95%.”

In the case of Medicus the fee will increase 16% in April. This increase is added to the 23% in March, 30% in February and 40% in January. The accumulated increase is estimated at around 160%, a percentage higher than inflation. In this same sense, Swiss Medical announced a 16.9% increase in April.

The uncontrolled increase in prepaid payments has already produced rulings in favor of some affiliates, who took action before different courts. But they are sentences that are applied individually. Thus, for example, an adult over 80 years of age received a payment of $550,000 in his last bill, according to the newspaper Clarín. Eugenio Semino, Ombudsman for the Elderly, detailed to the same media that he receives between 300 and 400 calls and emails per day at the Ombudsman’s Office with cases of retired members and pensioners who cannot afford the increases in their prepaid payments. This is one of the consequences of the validity of the mega DNU.

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It is necessary to declare the nullity of the decree and all its measures. In this sense, the Unity Left Front bloc presented this Tuesday a bill which proposes to the Chamber of Deputies to declare the “absolute and insurable nullity” of the mega DNU 70/2023, issued by the government of Javier Milei.

Myriam BregmanPTS deputy in the Left Front, stated “with Congress functioning and having not been able to demonstrate either the exceptional nature or the need and urgency of the measures it proposes, there is no justification for this mega decree to be in force or for it to be impose this structural modification, of dozens of laws and hundreds of articles, which even include the legalization of the resale of tickets at sporting events.”

Profit from health

A report from the former Ministry of Health detailed the 10 entities with the highest number of affiliated people. The 10 entities accumulated, in May 2022, 5,664,760 affiliates, while the other 60 registered only 1,131,930. That is to say, The 10 largest entities (Osde, Swiss Medical, Galeno, Sancor, Omint, among others) concentrate 83.4% of the population. There is a strong concentration of affiliates in a few firms. Far from the discourse of competition that Milei promotes, it is a few companies that decide and influence prices (quotas).

In addition, these companies regret that they could not raise their contributions in previous years, but they omit the benefits they received from the previous Government, such as the reduction of employer contributions during the pandemic, and the exemption of 100% of employer contributions for those companies that adhered to the agreement not to increase fees to their affiliates.

A few companies profit from health. But health is a right, not a business. That is why the left proposes a single national health systemand the state production of essential medicines to supply the entire country centralized in a single medicine bank.