Inflation, health and the middle class. These are the points that explain why its confrontation with prepaid companies is so important for the Government, which criticizes that “This didn’t even happen in Cristina’s time. [Kirchner] that of [Guillermo] Moreno”.
The ruling party’s movements began with a post in X by the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, who spoke of a “war” that private medicine companies would have started with their increases. The Government will “respond” with judicial presentations, as confirmed by a source from the Superintendency of Health Services.
The Ministry of Economy is working on a complaint against prepaid payments that it will present to the Competition Defense Commission. Is by alleged cartelization.
Besides, The Government hopes to present a precautionary measure tomorrow asking to roll back prices. It is something similar to what many affiliates, in particular, began to do since the beginning of the year.
“There are zero bridges,” said a source from the private health system, who admitted that there were frustrated dialogues between the Government and the prepaid companies. “There were informal conversations that contemplated the possibility of not increasing quotas, to which it was requested that supplies or medicines not increase either. “We were very close to an agreement and the Government kicked the table and said we are not going to talk anymore,” he summarized.
In response to questions from LA NACION, official sources explained that the final text of the complaint for alleged cartelization is not yet available, but the Government plans to support said accusation through numbers that, according to the Executive, would demonstrate a “coordinated action between the main actors of the market by increasing the values of shares equal to each other for four months.”
Last week, the Government requested reports from prepaid companies with information on benefits and costs. The numbers that I would include in this accusation are made from the increases of five of them. In a table he analyzes that They registered increases between January and April that ranged between 142.7% and 163.9%.
When analyzing this information, it is observed that in January the variations in the quotas of these five companies would have fluctuated between 39.8% and 44%; in February, between 27.5% and 29.4%; in March, between 19% and 22.9%; and in April, between 14% and 18.9%.
According to the companies, the increases are similar because it is the cost of the PMO. It is the Mandatory Medical Plan prepared by the Government. It includes what benefits the different agents of the health system must guarantee. ““We sell the same product and all (prepaid companies) use more or less the same inputs,” summarized a private source.
However, For the Government, this would constitute “coordinated abusive conduct.” Therefore, in addition to the complaint for alleged cartelization that will be presented to the National Commission for the Defense of Competition, which depends on the Ministry of Commerce, it is preparing a precautionary measure to request “return prices to January or February.”
This last lack of definition from the Government is important, given that the value of the prepaid medicine fee could be altered if they went back to January or February, in case the Justice accepts the appeal.
When asked about the possibility of returning to previous values, the private health sector responded that “it would generate a serious collapse in the system, because not only the prices of the installments would decline, but also what the providers receive.”