La Opinion de Pergamino Newspaper

Adjustments imposed by economic measures implemented by the national government have an impact on all areas of daily life and health is no exception. Cuts in spending and limits on discretionary transfers to the provinces – something that will certainly force spending to be controlled and will certainly affect the level of income that is available in the medium term to support care equipment -, Inflation component has been added. , the workload of the health sector, and the imbalances that existed throughout the health system before the crisis resulted in some difficulties in overcoming complex structural problems. To this we must add that the increase in prepaid drug costs and the proposed changes in the social work system seriously affect the users of the health system and leave them without much access to health services to restructure the costs to balance the costs. Let’s force.

a parameter, pharmacies

One of the areas where the economic impact is felt most is in pharmacies. The increase in the price of medicines has continued in recent times and this, on the one hand, has made it difficult for providers, who must analyze the cost of supplies and medicines in health services. And on the other hand, for patients who see how price increases seriously impact their chances of accessing top brand medicines. As in other sectors of the domestic economy, generic drugs are increasingly being used as less expensive alternatives. You have to ask yourself whether these medicines have the same concentrations and active ingredients in their composition and whether, as a result, the results they provide are the same. Regardless of how both medical professionals and pharmacists answer this question, the truth is that, for the moment, what dominates is the pocketbook and those who may be resigned to looking to balance the scales a little.

Except for those who have their medications for the management of long-term conditions covered 100 percent and continue to carry generic brands, the rest of the patients who have to pay the difference or do not have coverage go straight to generic regardless. Let’s resort to. Which one. Have a doctor’s prescription. In local pharmacies it is mainly seen in antihypertensive drugs, medicines for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. “People do not come and look for the cheapest option,” pharmacists say and assure that the sales of products sold in pharmacies and which are not necessarily medicines have also declined significantly. “This happened with sunscreens, except for the high peak in demand at the beginning of summer, then people asked and could not buy them because the prices in some brands exceeded ten thousand pesos.” Something similar happened with repellents, although within the framework of the alert for cases of dengue and other diseases spread by mosquitoes, people decided to take them when they found them, given that there has been a shortage of them during the season. .

prepaid

Another cost that was significantly revised in Health Affairs is associated with prepaid drug charges. The increase reached one hundred percent in many cases in the last quarter and this change had a significant impact on many people’s family budgets. Even those who are part of the system using contributions made by their employers and who pay only a portion of the fees are angered by the prospect of avoiding this expense with still no end in sight. . In recent days, partners of many prepaid pharmaceutical companies have already received communications from the companies providing this service, informing them that next month there will be a new increase in fees that will reach approximately 20 percent, something like Which shows that the pace of increase does not stop with the implementation of regulation and jeopardizes the certain possibility of many households to maintain contracted plans.

Many companies in the sector consulted by LA Opinion acknowledged that they receive questions daily from customers interested in evaluating plans that are less in terms of coverage, but more convenient from an economic point of view, although they recalled that Emphasized that the price of prepaid medication was crushed by regulation and the impossibility of increasing it more than the percentage authorized by the government.

Changes in plans, choice of more convenient offers and design of low-cost packages by the companies themselves begin to become part of the series of options that are studied as part of the adjustment. Those who see this possibility as severely conditioned are those over the age of 65 who remain tied to a fixed benefit because the companies do not accept them or impose conditions practically unaffordable for payment.

Users, for their part, note with concern that this increase in fee levels is not reflected in the expansion of the benefit offer, but, on the contrary, there are medical specialties that charge co-payments or practices that are exempt from Coverage is given even in higher plans.

It will be necessary to see how the growth continues and how much of it will prompt changes or transition to other medical coverage systems. If this happens, it will also be necessary to measure what real capacity the Union social work system will have to absorb greater demand and what will happen to those who are not able to pay the additional fees directly and are required to receive public care. Will have to resort to equipment. System.

provider also

Just as users of the health system are affected by the crisis, providers are also going through a complex situation. In the past few hours, Kinesiologists announced that they will stop providing social and prepaid services due to lack of updated fees. Earlier, biochemists did the same and it is difficult to find professionals from other specialties such as dentistry who work for social or prepaid functions, without charging the difference for certain procedures that are not included in the agreements or With fees that are not updated and inadequate. ,

In medical offices, conditions of care change daily based on the dynamics of whether or not the fees they receive have been updated, and the same is true for hospitalist providers. The increase in costs, the intense state of the workforce in the health sector, the gap between the cost of benefits, what providers actually get and the terms on which they receive payment, is driving a state of terminal crisis for the sector that has been described as It must be reorganized and some financial support mechanism will be required to sustain it in times of crisis affecting various dimensions of comprehensive health care.

Has health care been left behind?

From the consultations undertaken between both users and providers to produce this report, what has been clearly noted is that in times of crisis many health-related issues are sidelined and control and consultation over those issues Are done which are not urgent. For many people, it is becoming difficult to think of certain benefits and the need is leading to delays in consultations and practices that would be considered important in another context. An example of this are consultations with certain specialists, the performance of beauty or health treatments, the continuation of psychology treatments and those consultations in which fees are charged in excess of the difference covered by social and prepaid functions.

Health issues that do not represent an immediate emergency are mistakenly left aside in the urgency of addressing other concerns. This is a reality expressed by many people. And on the other hand, what is injured in these scenarios is preventive medicine, which aims at early detection of pathology and ensuring true health care beyond the specific disease state.

increasing demand

Just as for issues that are not considered urgent there are postponements and delays in consultations or procedures, in parallel and for some time now, there has been a growing demand for attention in both public and private providers and this, What is happening According to several sources consulted, this is for several reasons. One of them happened during the pandemic, when there was a demand that was controlled as the system and society focused only on caring for COVID-19 cases and emergencies. This pent-up demand began to be released as the health situation changed and this led to an intensification of health work, which significantly increased the demand in the care and diagnostic sectors. This showed that after the pandemic, a population appeared to suffer from more serious diseases, either due to neglect in the control of chronic diseases, or due to the presence of other types of pathologies diagnosed at later stages.

These conditions have given health care a dynamism that requires providers to operate in a sustained manner with high levels of demand and to do so in a highly adverse economic context, subject to restrictions, without change in conditions and stability. Which makes smooth operation possible. Although it is true that as a result of the providers’ own foresight and efforts to supply the necessary stocks of supplies and medicines, the quality of care or its regularity has not been affected.

The public health system is also experiencing high demand for care. The availability of offers for both diagnosis and treatment of various diseases and the impossibility of affording care in private providers lead many people to turn to public medicine, even where there is some form of social coverage. This requires devices to expand their offering, strengthen their infrastructure and create a network of professionals from different disciplines, to be able to meet the needs in both the primary care system and second levels of care. Grow as the crisis evolves.

more mental health care

The dimension of the crisis finds a thermometer in the increase of demand for care in the mental health care equipment operated in the public health system. The need, both at hospital level and in the primary care system and community support service, that of the Psychological College, is increasing and all these tools try to respond with quality and sensitivity to this demand. This change always occurs in times of crisis causing the community to seek alternatives to mental health care without increasing their already high cost of living. The great challenge that is currently proposed is to strengthen the equipment to face this demand, something that is difficult even in times of economic scarcity such as the one we are experiencing.