With the sun behind our backs, the fate of the health, pension and labor reforms is uncertain. These social reforms, apparently, will not be able to overcome this legislature because there are only 15 days left in the period for this Congress and there is more uncertainty than clarity about its course.
And although institutions such as the Trade Council have asked the Government for an estimate of the impact of the three projects, there are several independent calculations.
Health
Undoubtedly, one of the projects that is most advanced is that of health, which was filed on February 13, but its discussion only began until April 18. Sin la salud is the project that has received the most criticism from health unions, such as Gertarsalud and Acemi, among others, but also from think tanks such as Fedesarrollo and even from politicians close to the Government.
In addition to the few financial clarities, there is concern about the functions that the managers would have and the role of the Adres.
In a debate last Friday between Anif, Acemi, Eafit and the University of Medellín, under the slogan ‘what will happen to insurance and financial sustainability?, the Vice Minister of Social Protection, Luis Alberto Martínez, highlighted that “one of the achievements of the current system and that cannot be lost is the great reduction in out-of-pocket spending”.
According to the deputy minister, the government’s main objective with the reform is to avoid the commodification of services and for health to reach all those who need it, and he says that the reform proposes “universal public health for all.”
For his part, Mauricio Santa María, president of the Anif economic studies center, spoke about the achievements of the current health system and the risks generated by the reform. “The reform as it is proposed today is going to complicate life for patients, and that is going to end up affecting the lower-income population,” he said.
Some of the specific risks that Santa María named are related to the fragmentation of the service. “Patients today know the route to follow, with the reform it will not be clear. What we are going to see are lines like the ones seen in social security,” she said. He also mentioned the increase in procedures and the increase in waiting times that, according to him, are a fact, “among other reasons, because the flow of resources is going to slow down because it is going to be concentrated in a single entity: the Adresses “, said.
Regarding the ADRES, he assured that one of his great concerns is its administrative capacity. “The same director of the Adres said in Congress that the entity does not have the capacity to assume all that. Today the ADRES has the capacity to process 50,000 monthly invoices, while the EPS process close to 8,000,000 monthly invoices”, he said.
The labor
Regarding the labor reform, the project was also filed before Commission VII of the House of Representatives, on March 16, and after several weeks of discussions and analysis between the Government and the speakers, the text for the first debate was ready on may 17th. Last week, on May 30, the commission was summoned for discussion and voting, but due to lack of a quorum, voting on the articles did not begin.
the labor reform, which seeks to modify the Substantive Labor Code, the Government gave in with some points, such as that the night schedule begins at 7:00 pm or that the payment of 100% in the surcharges of Sundays and holidays is implemented gradually, but the bases are maintained.
One of the biggest opponents of the project has been Fenalco. Jaime Alberto Cabal, leader of the union, has raised his voice because of the impact he would have on businessmen. A study prepared by researchers from Banco de la República even calculates that, due to the increase in salary costs, which could rise between 3.2% and 10.7% plus an increase of up to 1.9% in dismissal costs , up to 450,000 jobs could be lost.
the pension
On the pension side, the project entered Committee VII of the Senate on March 22, and the paper was filed on May 30, to be discussed in its first debate in Congress. Given this scenario, last week the Minister of Labor, Gloria Inés Ramírez, called on Congress and the political parties to process the government’s social reforms.
“Colombia must take advantage of this opportunity and I call on the Congress of the Republic, the political parties and Colombians so that the labor and pension reforms are the opportunity for equity, balance and that Colombia can continue moving towards a country of rights,” said Ramírez.
In the pension, on the other hand, the presentation did not touch the heart of the project: the cap of three minimum wages, which determines that all contributions must go to Colpensiones up to this range, but it did modify the pension age for women in the solidarity and contributory pillar, which would no longer be 65 years, but 60.
This initiative has been widely questioned by entities such as Anif, Fedesarrollo and the Autonomous Committee of the Fiscal Rule itself, and also by Asofondos, the union of pension funds. Among the calculations, there has been talk of increases of up to 249% of GDP in pension liabilities (Anif), while Fedesarrollo estimates 30% of GDP.
One of the modifications proposed by the senators speakers is, in the solidarity pillar, to reduce the age of access to women from 65 to 60 years. In this pillar, an income of 223 thousand pesos is delivered for each older adult, three times more than the older adult program.
“Today we deliver a very concerted proposal to the country, we have 71 articles, as the president of the commission explained very well, 18 articles that come for a broad and open debate and 6 that bring partial agreement, these elements fill us with optimism and enthusiasm. , and tell Colombia that in the passage of this draft Law, there is a commitment resulting from the rigor with which we have worked with the teams of senators, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labor and with the actuarial team from the National University”, said the head of the labor portfolio.
Next Tuesday, June 13, the debate on the articles of the bill will continue in the Seventh Committee of the Senate
“Labor informality must be solved”
The president of the National Trade Union Council, Germán Arce Zapata, exposed this week to EL NUEVO SIGLO, which In addition to the social reforms that the country requires, one that must be addressed is solving the labor informality that currently affects 12.9 million workers.
Likewise, the union leader said that at this time when the government is advancing the pension, health and labor reform, it is first necessary to establish how employment is going to be guaranteed so that Colombians can pay for their health and contribute to your retirement.
Arce Zapata told this newspaper that “the country has problems to solve, but I give a simple example of the solutions. Having in the labor sector one of the highest rates of informality in the region and in the world for a middle-income country like Colombia is a major structural problem. Not solving labor informality is a country mistake because that is one of the structural problems of the economy and it seems to me that it is a strategic mistake”.
Regarding the reforms that the Government is advancing, the union leader said that “it does not dialogue to agree on things, that is, to reach agreements, that is, the dialogue has to have an objective, a purpose and I believe that the purpose should be for the whole of society And here I mean not only the businessmen, but the government. I am not saying that this is easy, but it does require that we all do our part.