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Salta took stock of two months of charging for health care to foreigners: fewer consultations and savings of $23 million - Infobae
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Salta hizo un balance a dos meses del cobro de la atención sanitaria a extranjeros: menos consultas y ahorro de $23 millones
“Antes estábamos con los pasillos colmados y hoy estamos bastante holgados, de 3.300 pacientes bajamos a 60 en Orán”, señaló el ministro de Salud provincial, Federico Mangione
www.infobae.com
May 08, 2024
“Before we had full hallways and today we are quite comfortable, from 3,300 patients we went down to 60 in Oran,” said the provincial Minister of Health, Federico Mangione.
Minister of Health of Salta
The government of Salta, at the beginning of March, published a DNU to charge for medical care for foreigners who do not reside in Argentina , an initiative that was later endorsed by a law. Since the application of the measure, the number of patients in provincial public hospitals has dropped sharply.
“Before we had the hallways full of patients, and today we are quite comfortable with care. Last month, from 3,300 patients who were treated, today we have dropped to 60 patients, in Oran . If we put the value of the consultation, which is $6,600, we would have to be earning more than 23 million pesos, just in consultations,” explained the Minister of Health of Salta, Federico Mangione , in statements to Radio con Vos .
The San Vicente hospital, in the city of Orán, province of Salta, is one of the most affected by the measure
In that sense, he added: “ Here in Salta and in Argentina we have very good public health . For this reason, I don't like it when people talk about reciprocity with the neighboring country, because no Salta or Argentinian goes to Bolivia to get treated . There they charge you for absolutely everything , in fact patients have died at the hospital door because they did not want to treat them.”
“ A day in bed represents 65 thousand pesos, a common day, and a day of therapy, 250 thousand pesos . If you make the transfer and see how much a foreign patient represented to us, it is important. The same with dental treatments, which are extremely expensive treatments, especially because of the supplies,” explained the provincial official.
Federico Mangione, Minister of Health of the province of Salta
Furthermore, he maintained: “In the city of Oran, a few months ago, we had an automated digital medical history system, where we began to detect that 10% of our public health budget went to care for foreigners . It is not just consultations, but you have to add blood tests, radiology, more complex studies and also the treatment that the patient needs.”
The initiative for this measure was from the governor of Salta, Gustavo Sáenz . “First a Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) was issued and then it became law, so we are already charging. What is being charged is at the value of the Provincial Health Institute, which is the provincial social work, where everything is listed and each pathology of care or practice carried out has a value,” said the Salta minister.
“ He who is based in Salta and pays taxes is just another Salta citizen and is not charged anything. Those who come in transit, which are a lot of people, since we have the automated system with medical records, we know perfectly well who they are. Emergencies are not negotiated , if the patient is at risk of life, they are treated, and then we see how we charge it and to whom,” Mangione described.
And about this, he added: “The governor is working hard on this because we are convinced that it is helping the province's health system a lot, and that it will help the Nation as well .”
The governor of Salta, Gustavo Sáenz, was the promoter of the law
Likewise, the head of the provincial Health portfolio also referred to the decrease in funds transferred from the national government. “We have to take different measures to try to compensate for the great lack of non-automatic transfer that has been cut off from us .”
Finally, regarding Monsignor Luis Sconzzina 's call to prevent the tariff from becoming a form of discrimination, or xenophobia , Mangione stated: "I think the Father's opinion is misguided, because it has nothing to do with the fact that there are relatives Bolivians from Argentines and that they are charged . Because the Argentine relatives of Bolivians go there and charge them. It has nothing to do with it, because they are family here we have to take care of them.”
