Morena’s parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies presented this morning, the initiative to reform article 77 bis 17 of the General law of health to recover the 33 billion pesos that the Health Fund for Wellbeing has, better known for Catastrophic Expenditures and that generated a gap in the approval of the Income Law.
The document presented by the deputy of Morena, Iván Arturo Pérez Negrón, indicates in one of the transitory articles it is established that the Institute of Health for Well-being will instruct that the Health Fund for Well-Being, that no later than April 1, 2021, concentrates in the Federation Treasury the amount of up to 33 billion pesos of the assets of that trust, in accordance with the applicable legal provisions.
In addition, it seeks that when this fund accumulates resources in an amount greater than twice the amount approved in the Expenditure Budget of the Federation for fiscal year 2020 as contributions to the trust of the Health Fund for Well-being, the remainder may be used to strengthen actions in health matters through the reimbursement of resources to the TESORERY of the Federation.
The amendment proposal adds that the accumulated resources that are maintained in the Fund will continue to guarantee the attention of diseases that caused catastrophic expenses, the attention to infrastructure needs, the supply and distribution of medicines and other supplies and access to clinical examinations.
This initiative was presented at the end of the session where the Income Law was endorsed and after a debate of almost 18 hours and was referred to the Budget Commission and with an opinion from the Health Commission.
Read also: Deputies generally endorse the Income Law with 33 mmdp less for the Executive
The legislator of Morena argues that this Health Fund, year after year, registers that more resources are coming in than what it actually spends and practically twice the amount that is validated.
Pérez Negrón accused that previous governments subrogated medical care to private institutions through the use of the resources in question and through the Seguro Popular, which created a vicious circle.
“Where it was argued that public infrastructure was not sufficient and services were subrogated to private, which caused investment to be redirected to them and paid to public infrastructure, thereby maintaining insufficient in perpetuity,” he describes in his arguments Morena’s legislator.
Given this scenario, said the deputy, the Superior Audit of the Federation determined in 2014 a Promotion of Sanctioning Administrative Responsibility, since the public servants attached to the General Directorate of Health Services, “did not supervise the service providers of the National Private Sector Health system to verify that the medical interventions that are covered with the FPGC they were carried out with effective, timely, quality access and without out-of-pocket expenses for the beneficiaries ”.
Meanwhile, “no irregularities were identified in matters of infrastructure financed by the fund, even though the Ministry of Health reported that the previous government inherited 300 hospitals and clinics in complete abandonment”.
Read also: They will recover 33 thousand million pesos from the Health Fund
“The result of all this process is the accumulation of a very important amount of public resources destined to the health care of Mexicans that are neither spent to cover diseases that cause catastrophic expenses, nor are they used to expand the infrastructure, nor to greater drug coverage and, now, not for the care of the Covid-19 disease pandemic, which causes the SARS-Cov-2 virus, which obviously generates a catastrophic expense for a very relevant part of Mexican women and men. Mexicans and for the State ”, defines the deputy.
It should be remembered that this Tuesday, the federal deputies managed to approve, in commissions, the Federal Revenue Law for 2021 with an expenditure for the Federal Executive of 6 billion 262 thousand 736.2 million pesos, however, it had a reduction of 33 One billion pesos less than as proposed by the head of the Executive, due to the elimination of a transitory article that sought to obtain the resources of the Health Fund for Well-being.
However, the coordinator of Morena in the Chamber of Deputies, Mario Delgado, announced that next week they will endorse a reform to article 77 Bis of the General Health Law, to recover the 33 billion pesos from the Health Fund and not reduce the Federation’s spending, and thus ensure the purchase of the Covid vaccine.
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