The fees for prepaid medicines experienced an average increase of 129% since the beginning of Milei’s management in the national government. However, other items such as fuels had greater increases. Given this increase, considered excessive by the national government, it was decided to take measures to contain the escalation of prices.
According to an analysis carried out by economist Esteban Domenecq, in the metropolitan area, the year-on-year increase in prepaid payments between March 2023 and March 2024 was approximately 289%. During the four months of the Milei government, this increase was 129%, representing a 44% increase on the previous amount, with still one year ahead.
Reversal with the increase in prepaid payments: the 40% loss in private medicine crystallizes
Comparatively, increases in fuels were even more pronounced, with a 364% year-on-year increase and an increase under the Milei government that was around 166.2%.
Let’s take another example, the tpublic transportwho experienced a 385% year-on-year increaseagainst an increase of 191.7% during Milei’s management of the corresponding portfolio.
In summary, increases in private medicine remain lower compared to other products and services. The problem lies not so much in the absolute amounts, but in the speed with which the drastic increases were implemented.
According to estimates by economist Nadin Argañaraz, the cost of prepaid companies represented around 18% of the average formal salary in December 2023, and increased to 30% in April this year due to the deregulation implemented by the government of Javier Milei.
Faced with these increases, the government issued an opinion for alleged cartelization and forced seven specific prepaid companies to roll back their prices to the levels of December 2023, as well as to recalculate the increases based on the variation in the Consumer Price Index.
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With these new measures, it is expected that the weight of prepaid payments in the salary is reduced by around 22% of the total, according to calculations by Argañaraz. The beneficiaries will be the users of the companies affected by the official provision, which would imply a reduction of 33% in the quota, according to official estimates, and around 27%, according to Argañaraz calculations.