Colombia’s interior minister said that a referendum might be necessary to force Congress into approving a desperately needed healthcare reform.
In an interview with Caracol Radio, Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said that politicians from outside the government and its coalition in Congress proposed a referendum to overcome opposition in Congress.
“Two political leaders who are not part of the government, who have not authorized their names to be disclosed, would support a referendum” on the healthcare reform, said Benedetti.
“This time, the idea comes from political sectors that previously didn’t support the referendum” on a labor reform that was approved earlier this year after President Gustavo Petro threatened to put it to a popular vote.
The problem is that the government’s reform proposal bars private healthcare intermediaries (EPS) from managing public funds.
The same companies have long sponsored congressional election campaigns.
What is clear is that this Congress was not up to the task of reforming the justice system or healthcare. All they do is block things, saying that if they are not given perks, there is no way to reach an agreement, and the ruling class is the one that controls Congress.
Armando Benedetti
The privatization of Colombia’s healthcare system in 1993 has led to countless crises and the bankruptcies of more than 100 EPSs.
The intermediaries were supposed to handle the payment of healthcare-related treatments.
Instead, they invested public money in private financial ventures, funded their own expansion, embezzled money, and simply failed to pay providers.
The Prosecutor General’s Office last month opened a criminal investigation against former directors of one of the largest EPS for alleged financial fraud, which amounted to almost $1.3 billion (COP5 trillion).
In total, the intermediaries owe hospitals and doctors more than $6 billion (COP25 trillion).
Congress has blocked the healthcare reform multiple times, despite a growing risk of collapse.
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