The Comptroller General’s Office (CGO) issued an alert about an ongoing degradation of Colombia’s public healthcare system, which is owed more than $8.2 billion (COP32.9 trillion) by private intermediaries called EPS’s.
In its annual report, the financial watchdog said that the debt of the EPS’s rose to COP32.9 trillion in 2024 compared to $25 trillion the year before.
Only six of 29 EPS’s complied with the financial regulations that allow them to operate legally, according to the OGC.
This means that the healthcare of almost 90% of Colombians was being managed by financially solvent intermediaries.
80% of Colombia’s healthcare intermediaries lack legally required funds
The EPS’s growing debt “demonstrates a financial unsustainability and a critical state of the system” despite government interventions in 12 of the struggling firms.
The measures adopted by the Superintendency have not reversed the financial crisis or improved the quality of care. The OGC also warns that no forceful actions have been demanded from the interveners to achieve the stability of the EPS’s, which has worsened the performance and financial crisis, affecting the quality of the health service to its users.
Comptroller General’s Office
The report comes three weeks after the government coalition in Congress introduced its third healthcare reform proposal since President Gustavo Petro took office in 2022.
Petro’s opponents in the capitol successfully sank the previous proposals that sought to fix the problems in public healthcare that have gotten increasingly worse since the introduction of the private intermediaries in the 1990’s.
Since the passing of the so-called Law 100 in 1990, more than 120 EPS’s have gone bankrupt, often leaving hospitals with the unpaid bills.
The reform seeks to make the government responsible for the paying of treatments in the public sector and reduce the role of the private firms to that of coordinators.
