This Sunday, December 4, in an interview with RCN news, President Gustavo Petro responded to some questions that worry Colombians regarding the health system, the negotiations with the ELN and the first 100 days in power.
In the first part he was blunt in saying that “neither in pensions nor in health will you have abrupt changes. That can not be done. In the case of health, you would endanger people’s lives. Always, as was the approval of Law 100, there is a transition period, which is what allows ordering the mechanism of changes, in such a way that unnecessary dangers or things like that are not caused, ”he said.
One of the most controversial issues has to do with the future of EPSbecause many Colombians feel restless to think that they could end and in whose hands the health system would be left. In this regard, President Petro explained:
“You have bankrupt public and private hospitals with a debt of 20 billion pesos. It is better to have a system that is capable of financing itself without that debt and strengthening the hospital, whether public or private, and prevention, which is what the State must set up first of all and that in Colombia it does not exist”, mentioned the president.
He added that “currently, the EPS are conglomerates of IPS, that must be explained to people. People believe that the EPS is the hospital, the X foundation, which is the one that provides the service. No, the EPS are intermediaries to which the State provides public or semi-public resources and the EPS hire hospitals to provide services. In the game of receiving money and having to take it out to pay for the hospital, then they take the money there, ”he commented.
In view of this pronouncement, RCN news then asked him why prepaid medicine, being this a service that has greater coverage for those who have the privilege of paying for it or accessing it through some type of contract. To this, the president Petro assured that he is not going to mess with them. “That’s a market,” he commented.
Negotiations with the ELN
Within the interview, the journalist asked the president “Why do we Colombians have to believe that peace with the ELN is possible? when is it a guerrilla that has dedicated itself to killing, kidnapping, extorting and kidding the State?”, to which Petro replied:
“I cannot give that guarantee because we all have doubts, including me. They also suffered some inconsistencies on the part of the government,” commented the president, who is already in talks with the ELN.
Video taken from RCN News