The Attorney General’s Office before the National Chamber of Commercial Appeals and the Program for the Protection of Users and Consumers of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) filed today an extraordinary appeal to revoke the rejection of an amparo filed by an elderly person, who suffers from a serious illness, against the increases applied by the prepaid medicine company.
This was done by Attorney General Gabriela Boquín, head of the Attorney General’s Office before the National Chamber of Commercial Appeals and the Program for the Protection of Users and Consumers (PPUC) of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Nation, who filed an extraordinary federal appeal before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to revoke the resolution of Chamber A of the Commercial Chamber, which rejected the amparo action filed by this patient, against the increases applied.
The prosecutor argued that the decision is “arbitrary, contrary to current federal law” and that it omitted “the relevance of the protection of the user of health services in the face of the commitments assumed by our country in terms of human rights, regarding the protection of old people”.
On the fiscal.gob.ar page, it was detailed that, in October 2020, a man and his partner filed an amparo action against the company Swiss Medical SA, to stop the increases in the health plan fee, adapt the monthly invoicing to the increases authorized by the application authority and the excess payment will be reimbursed, together with the accrued interest and the costs of the process.
The amparista had joined the Docthos Plan of Swiss Medical in 2013. At that time, he was informed that the fees would be deducted from his salary and that, at the time of retirement, he would maintain the benefits of the plan. In 2014, he was diagnosed with a serious illness that forced him to undergo treatment and, in 2019, surgery.
In 2017, the claimant retired and the fees began to be withdrawn from his bank account.
In May 2018, the cost was increased abruptly and without prior notification, for which he filed a claim with the prepaid medicine company and with the Superintendency of Health Services, after which he filed an amparo action to stop the increases. .
In answering the lawsuit, the representative of Swiss Medical SA acknowledged that the man and his partner were members of a social work, within the framework of a corporate plan, and that they had a bonus that ceased when the man retired.
Also, he was unaware of the application of arbitrary increases and that the rise was due to the modification of the man’s membership status when accessing the retirement benefit.
Prosecutor Boquín appealed the decision and Chamber A of the Chamber of Commerce ruled that the increases were reported by Swiss Medical and consented to by the member.
In the contested resolution, the court of appeal “held that the theory of the acts themselves obliges the subject to be consistent and consistent with their actions, indicating that the parties cannot contradict their own previous, deliberate, legally relevant and fully effective acts in court. ”.
Prosecutor Boquín filed an extraordinary appeal before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, considering that Chamber A did not reconcile laws 26,682, on the Regulatory Framework for Prepaid Medicine, and 24,240, on Consumer Protection -which are public order regulations- , with the regulations and principles that arise from international treaties that have constitutional hierarchy and with the regulation of those constitutional rights.
In her appeal, the prosecutor also highlighted that the resolution of Chamber A is of great importance due to its future projections, since it exceeds the individual interest of the parties and affects the principle of protection and defense in court of users and consumers of the service. of health.
For the prosecution, the lack of application of an adequate standard for a vulnerable elderly person who is suffering from a serious illness implies “only an enslavement of the protective order, and leads to a distorted view of the behavior of consumers when hiring and their condition of aggravated vulnerability.
The prosecutor warned about the abusive practices that lead to an indirect expulsion from the prepaid medicine system, leaving the member without the possibility of continuing their treatments with the medical team with which they had been receiving care. (Telam)