2023-12-06 03:20:11
With the approval of 133 approved articles, the health reform was passed in the House, now the debate will be in the Senate. Chanting the traditional “yes we could”, the congressmen celebrated the vote of 87 in favor of the approval of the reform and took a photo with posters alluding to the “change” government.
This Tuesday’s day began with just five articles to approve to advance with the reform in Congress after the plenary session of the Chamber decided on Monday night to adjourn the session with the commitment to reach a consensus with the controversial article 42.
This point of the reform establishes new rules for electing the directors of the State Health Institutions. However, this Tuesday the discussion resumed without any agreement.
In principle, the congressmen requested to eliminate the article, but there was no consensus regarding that proposal, so representative Jaime Raúl Salamanca, of the Green Alliance Party, proposed creating a subcommittee to finalize the details and draft that point in a better way. specific.
Among the main objections is that meritocracy would be eliminated, since the rules for hiring directors of hospitals and clinics would be changed, running the risk of hand-picked elections.
Thus, article 42 was included in the debate this Tuesday along with articles 122, 123, 128 and 143.
This Tuesday the debate continued with a refusal to the proposal of representative Andrés Forero to postpone the discussion. Around 4:10 in the afternoon, the president of the Chamber, Andrés Calle, began the debate. Without consensus on article 42, Calle asked to move forward with the discussion of the rest of the articles in order to vote.
And with sufficient quorum, the plenary session of the Chamber approved articles 122 and 123 with 99 votes in favor and only 23 votes against.
These approved articles are related to the ability to “issue regulations with the force of law” that can be agreed upon through prior consultations with the communities specifically to change the Indigenous and Intercultural Health System (SISPI) and in steps can regulate the intercultural health in territories of black, raizales, afro, palenqueras and Rrom communities.
Subsequently, the vote was opened for the elimination of article 128 that gave extraordinary powers to President Gustavo Petro, for a maximum of six months, for the capitalization of the New EPS. And with 101 votes in favor, it was approved to remove that point from the health reform.
A proposal from representative Olga Lucia Velásquez, of Alianza Verde, pointed out that an article in the National Development Plan already contains the possibility for the Government to capitalize national companies, so article 128 was seen as unnecessary.
When there were only two articles left to vote on, number 143 was approved but the discussion extended around number 42, which dictates new rules for electing directors of clinics and hospitals and in which the discussion has been engrossed in recent days. For that same reason, the session had to be suspended this Monday.
This Tuesday, the plenary session of the House was declared in permanent session to advance the discussion. Finally, congressmen voted for article 42 and it was eliminated from the reform with more than 60 votes against.
After voting on all the planned points of the project, proposals for new articles were received to discuss.
Now the approved articles will go to the third debate in the seventh committee of the Senate.
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