Health System Defunding: A Growing Concern for Patients
Defunding the health system is becoming more serious and patients are showing its impact on service provision.
Future health reform that ignores the structural problems and adjusting the Capitation Payment Unit (UPC) under financial needs will only add uncertainty to the already tight system situation.
The lack of resources for the health sector is becoming more apparent every day. After the worrying financial situation highlighted by the EPS and its subsequent intervention or voluntary liquidation, it is the patients who are now directly experiencing the impact of this serious situation facing the sector.
As we always warn, defunding the health system leads to an increase in out-of-pocket expenditure due to increased waiting times for care and the supply of medicines. This point has set off alarm bells in recent days, as patients have reported shortages of essential medicines to treat chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, mental illness, among others; endangering the continuity of treatments and with this, the lives of people who suffer from these pathologies.
According to the recent report published by Invima, in July 2024, 2.5% of medicines are out of stock and 2.3% are at risk of shortage, which suggests that they may be out of stock in the short or medium term, if back. On the other hand, about 180 of the 396 medicines listed are monitored, that is, under permanent follow-up due to a limitation in the number available. In contrast, the entity notes that more than half of the medicines are immediately available.
The national health authority claims that the reasons for this shortage are mainly due to the behavior of the market, for example, an increase in demand, more prescription of certain medicines, a problem in procuring raw materials, a few suppliers, low profitability, limitation in international and national production, delays in the import process, nationalization and health registration, increase in the price of inputs, among others.
Now, when the number of Health claims made by SuperSalud is analyzed, it can be seen that the reports for the first half of 2024, which are related to the supply of medicines, have decreased compared to last year. However, after the Health Superintendent’s visit to a pharmacy manager, it was noted that more than 5,000 medicines had not been distributed in the first five months of the year, with a delay of more than 100 days. In particular, the High Cost Patient Foundation reported in August that around 45 essential medicines to treat patients with this type of illness had been delayed before deliveries.
This shortage of medicines and medical equipment is only at the forefront of financing the health sector, where the actors (insurers, providers, pharmaceutical managers, pharmaceutical companies and patients) have recently raised the problem of resource flow. Associations in the pharmaceutical and insurance sectors have warned of the consequences of a lack of funding in healthcare and the supply of medicines. Furthermore, uncertainty remains regarding the proposal that the executive is expected to present to the Congress of the Republic, in the new legislature, as well as the allocation of the budget for the sector, taking into account the lack of insurance needs (UPC) and resources.
