Because of the popular consultation and the problems with the health system in Colombia, the list of candidates for the Presidency of the Republic and the Congress will be joined by the users-customers-victims of the Health Promotion Companies (EPS).
Germán Ayala Osorio*
Although for this population group (the victims of a questionable health system) there will not be the everlasting electoral kit that every four years political parties and politicians usually deliver during the campaign, promises of a better service will appear as if by magic.
In fact, the presidential candidate of the Gilinski and Gnecco clans, Vicky Dávila, has already begun to exploit the plight of patients with catastrophic illnesses. Her shameless and shameful populism is directly connected to her past as a journalist, as she knows very well what media ‘misery-porn’. However, I doubt very much that she understands how the perfidious health care model operates in the country, which includes vertical integration in which millions and millions of pesos were spent and, in this way, patients’ care deteriorated and, of course, billions of pesos from public resources were lost to the everlasting private corruption.
There is a fierce dispute in the social networks between Cyber-Troops and profiles about the establishment of responsibilities in the crisis of an insurance model designed to perfection for the diversion of public money and the enrichment of a few families and politicians involved in the lucrative business.
The narrative of the neo-liberal right, which fiercely defends the perverse health system, is easy to use against the current government: its most visible spokespersons are the Bogotá and regional press and national news programmes, all ready to exploit the pain and anguish of the patients, viewed by the journalists as victims of the government and not of the EPS and the companies in charge of providing the medicines. For this reason, the government of President Gustavo Petro, together with the Superintendencia Nacional de Salud (Supersalud), must make huge administrative and logistical efforts to improve the provision of health services. The traditional press has already learned how to get people to go out and vote.
If the media spectacle of patients’ anguish continues, it is easy to imagine the offers made by the congressional and presidential candidates, friends and defenders to the death of Law 100 of 1993.
They say: “I will put an end to the queues to receive medicines”; “In my government resources will be transferred on time and capitation payments and technical reserves will be increased”; “We will return to being one of the best health systems on the entire American continent”; “We will not allow the nationalisation of the health model, we will not return to the times of the Social Security”.
While the government is writing the questions that Colombians will have to answer in the popular consultation, the press releases of the media companies will increase considerably for the aforementioned electoral purposes. This is already the political and electoral strategy of the EPSs to portray themselves as victims of the Petro government. Insisting on slowing down the delivery of medicines and making sure that there are always endless queues outside the health care entities, helps the hegemonic media to do the shared task of pointing the finger of blame for the collapse of the health care system under the government of Gustavo Petro. This is a devious strategy that benefits the owners of the EPSs and the mass media that oppose the current government.
*Germán Ayala Osorio: Social communicator, journalist and political scientist, author of the blog La otra tribuna.
(Translated by Rene Phelvin – Email: renephelvin@gmail.com) – Photos: Pixabay
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