Colombia’s Congress sunk a healthcare reform that was one of the flagship policy proposals of President Gustavo Petro’s government.
Ahead of the vote, the Health Superintendent assumed control over two of the countries largest healthcare firms that jointly coordinate the healthcare of more than 16 million people.
According to the superintendent, the privately owned healthcare firms Nueva EPS and Sanitas lacked the finances needed to function as an intermediary between patients and healthcare providers.
In a report issued in February, the health authority said that only five of the 26 healthcare intermediaries, or EPS’s, comply with regulations that allow them to operate legally.
80% of Colombia’s healthcare intermediaries lack legally required funds
The private companies owed Colombia’s hospitals and doctors more than $6 billion (COP25 trillion).
In an attempt to prevent their bankruptcy, the superintendent will appoint directors that will be expected to clean up the financial chaos of the troubled EPS’s within a year.
The sunk healthcare reform sought to dramatically change the role of the EPS’s in an attempt to secure people’s timely access to healthcare and payments to actual health providers.
The proposal was opposed by the far-right opposition, and liberal and conservative parties that are neither part of the opposition nor the progressive coalition.
Many of these parties received donations from the EPS’s or their parent companies in the 2022 congressional elections, according to local media.