EPS: With nothing to eat…

Do yourselves a favor and study the health reform project that the government has just presented so that you don’t think that the good ones are the EPS and that the bad ones are the doctors and the patients. Both have been mistreated by Law 100, and acetaminophen will not cure what is wrong.

As citizens we must demand that the EPS work in favor of the sick and the healthy so that they get less sick; that the reform be shielded against white-collar thieves -always ready to take a slice at the point of little articles and monkeys- and reject harmful forms of intermediation in the health sector, because the difference between life and death cannot remain in hands of the administrative paperwork.

Intermediation consists of a third party being placed in the middle of two to complicate things. Think of a love triangle. The same thing has been happening in the health sector for 30 years after the creation of Law 100: the EPS intervened between the doctor and the patient, which are businessmen who manage the public resources of the system and to that extent control the doctor and the patient, so that the expenses do not overflow, since the resources of the system are finite, limited. It seems then that the EPS were created to entangle Colombians in a tangle of paperwork and authorizations that basically consist of denying services or running out of patience by delaying appointments with a specialist, urgent treatment, or expensive but necessary medications. I attest because I had to wait two and a half months for the orthopedist to see me after a broken shoulder, and regarding the fact he scolded me because I did not have surgery immediately.

-Doctor, it seems that you do not work in an EPS, I told him in a sarcastic tone, but not before clarifying that patients do not order surgeries.

I reiterate: No one should be sticking their noses between the doctor and the patient, in the same way that there are plenty of avivatos where the peasant who sweats cultivating the land and the consumer who buys food are. That is the reason why doctors cannot order/formulate everything a patient needs, forcing them to file guardianships so that their rights are not violated. In Colombia there are things that work better for the bad than for the good.

Before the reform proposal was presented (one of the reasons why millions of Colombians voted for President Petro), the Health Promotion Companies were already flocking to the media to complain, like the poor old lady, because they are going to be left with nothing to eat, although they don’t say it like that because no one would believe them.

And a good part of the press, which should be explaining in a pedagogical way the scope of the reform, with its pros and cons, is dedicated to defending the interests of health entrepreneurs. Between
Entrepreneurs understand each other, because some are owners of the media and the other owners of the EPS. The one that cares for my family went from having modest buildings to modern complexes with blocks around it in three decades, similar to what happens with certain Christian congregations.

The EPS are not in any case the poor old lady of the story. They are more concerned with their own numbers, not the sharp ones, and that’s exactly what needs to be reconsidered: the business, partner. They said it in a mocking tone on social networks: “The EPS do not cure, the EPS invoice”.

Let’s look at these buttons:

The Republic newspaper: Acemi warned that the health reform does eliminate the EPS and agrees with the Ministry of Education.

Diary Portfolio: Health reform confirms the fears of the EPS.

Newspaper El País/America: The EPS survive very weakened in the health reform of the Government of Gustavo Petro.

Valora Analytics: EPS warn that Petro’s health reform completely destroys them.

The media could also find out how exponentially tutelages grow for poor service and the sins of those who have been diligent in making room for public resources in their pockets. Let us not forget the case of Mr. Carlos Palacino, at the time president of the EPS SaludCoop, to whom El Tiempo awarded the deserved title of ´magnate de la salud´, with luxury properties that he got by usurping system resources. It is thus demonstrated that in this country the one who runs the least, flies. Certain powerful fly to get the juice (dividends) from other people’s money and those of us who go on foot run to see if they assign us a priority appointment.

By regulating the role of the EPS, the doctors win (whose working conditions are deplorable, said by them) and we win the patients. It is not about being for or against the EPS. It is about that all the actors are obliged to work towards the system of which they are part and whose purpose is defined in article 1 of Law 100: “… guarantee the inalienable rights of the person and the community to obtain the quality of life in accordance with human dignity, through the protection of contingencies that affect it”.

Let them know that every month we contribute from our pockets as contributors and help support Colombians in the subsidized regime. Parodying the saying: good is profit but not that much, because there is a risk that the EPS see us as clients and not as human beings who need dignified treatment and mercy in extreme cases, when it comes to so-called catastrophic illnesses.

On the other hand, we must support prevention (disease) and promotion (health) programs, because on this side we have to be part of the solution with self-care. Or do we want to have a medicine store at home or continue complaining like Miss Dolores in an emergency room seeing others in them?

I will continue reading the project textwhich we all must do, because we will also have to criticize and oppose what is wrong, and above all control so that this government or the politicians do not put their fingers in our mouths to see if they are milk in this electoral year .