Colombia’s medical and scientific associations, and the opposition Liberal Party, both reiterated their opposition to the government’s proposed health reforms Tuesday.
Social security minister Diego Palacio sat down Monday with Colombia’s leading medical and scientific associations, the first in a series of meetings this week about the government’s proposed health reforms.
However, the fact the groups are meeting doesn’t mean they have yet come to a consensus about the “social emergency” decrees intended to overhaul healthcare, said Jorge Patiño, former president of the national medical academy.
“The only solution is to repeal these social emergency decrees,” he told El Tiempo, adding that, “we’re a long way from a solution.”
Following Monday’s meeting, the government said that doctors would not face financial penalties for prescribing treatment that is not covered by the national health care plan, POS. Such a measure would have been instituted by decree 131, one of the most controversial of the fifteen decrees issued by the Uribe administration.
The Liberal Party has also presented a plan in Congress intended to repeal the decrees. Senator Juan Manuel Galan, who is leading the project, argues that the executive orders should not pass because they are in violation of patients’ rights.
Congress also plans to examine the legitimacy of the proposed emergency reforms.
