President Uribe said he will hammer out an agreement with Congress to pass his proposed healthcare reforms, to avoid the possibility that the Constitutional Court may throw them out.
Uribe said the reforms will be one of his administration’s top priorities between now and July 20, when he leaves office.
“What is the situation we wanted to avoid? That this lack of resources to fund the public health plan creates a situation of enormous chaos, a paralysis of healthcare,” he said in a radio interview.
Uribe declared a “social emergency” last December, in order to pass reforms by decree, after the finance minister said that the health care system faced a $400 million deficit.
Protesters have criticized certain parts of the reforms, which would ask patients to use their savings or retirement benefits to cover treatments not included in the Obligatory Health Plan, or POS.
