The Minister of Health, Carolina Corcho, left the Conservative, Liberal and La U parties bad for the second time. These three groups had given the Government an ultimatum to condition their support for the health reform with the inclusion of 134 proposals joint ventures, but finally decided to give in because most of those proposals were rejected.
The heads of those parties, Efraín Cepeda, César Gaviria and Dilian Francisca Toro, respectively, met in private for a conclave this Thursday in which they came to the conclusion that they will not support the reform because the Minister of Health again made them the ‘ ugly’ to their suggestions, rejecting 73% of them, which would translate into the political death of the reformist project.
This is due to the fact that this triad of traditional parties took it for granted that it would become a ‘spoke in the wheel’ for the reform since, according to Cepeda, “of the total proposals they only accepted 27% and of the priority proposals, which are the mixed model, the free choice and the health and life managers, only accepted 19 of the 95 proposals, that is, less than 20%”.
The reform was abandoned
Given the reluctance of these three parties, for the second time in less than a month, the accounts that the Casa de Nariño had made to obtain the approval of the reform in the Seventh Commission of the House ended up in disarray, since the congressmen of those collectivities they would be forced to vote against the bill.
The virtual calculations of the vote in the first debate were 8 votes in favor of the positive paper, 6 against and 7 still undefined, but given this change in the political landscape, the accounts would lean even more against the interests of the Government .
With these new positions, the votes would be reduced as follows: 8 in favor (4 from the Historical Pact, 2 from Peace Curles, 1 from Comunes and 1 from the Green Alliance), 12 against (4 from the Liberal, 2 from the Conservative, 2 from The U, 2 from the Democratic Center and 2 from Cambio Radical) and only one vote would remain to be defined (from the Green Alliance). If this materializes, the reform will collapse.
Although this vote is convincing for the Government, as it is the representative Juan Camilo Londoño -of the Green Alliance-, 9 supports would not be enough for the project to have the green light in its first debate, because it will need at least 11 positive votes to mathematically guarantee the majority.
What is striking about this scenario is that President Gustavo Petro’s “cake turned over” in less than 24 hours, and just when he and the members of the Historical Pact were more confident that this triad of parties could change their position. after they left the door open earlier in the week to possible endorsement if their proposals were considered.
This was made clear by the representative of the Historical Pact, Agmeth Escaf, president of the Seventh Commission, who assured EL COLOMBIANO this Thursday morning that “we have reached the most positive point of this process. The thick lines have thinned so much that they gave us threads in 133 proposals to be able to make the watermark that we will work on in the debate so that the reform is approved ”.
Despite this positivism, the reality turned out to be different, since after noon the malaise of the traditional parties broke out. The first to uncover his annoyance was Cepeda, who went head-on against Corcho. “I will not attend any more meetings (with the Minister). So that? With only 20% reception”.
Gaviria spoke along the same lines, insisting that Minister Corcho refuses to listen to his proposals. “We want our liberal red lines in the project, she sends to say no. We have nothing more to discuss with the lady. I do not lend myself to destroy the Colombian health system, with me and the Liberal Party do not count for such an action, ”said the former president.
Faced with this tense scenario, the three parties agreed that their 8 congressmen in the Seventh Chamber Commission will vote negative in the official paper if their more than 100 proposals are definitively discarded, for which they gave the Government Tuesday as the deadline to decide.
Health reforms abound
The discontent from various sectors with the pro-government reform and with the management of Minister Corcho has given rise to a kind of ‘avalanche’ of counter-reforms that seek to counterbalance the initiative of the Casa de Nariño. Two more were added this week to the counterproposals that were already under way, including those from the Democratic Center and Cambio Radical.
It turns out that these two opposition parties decided to present a negative paper last Wednesday with which they seek to have the reform shelved, arguing that it has procedural defects.
On the other hand, this Thursday the Liberal Party filed the alternative presentation with the 133 red lines that former President Gaviria disseminated a month and a half ago and that demands that they be adopted by the Government. In addition, they evaluate the times to file their own counter-reform to health in the First Commission of the Senate.
This being the case, with the passing of the days the panorama becomes more cloudy for the Government and continues to darken with the saturation of health reforms that accumulate in the Capitol.