As fundamental, the members of the Health Commission called the need study the mechanism on which the funding of the Ricarte Soto law is calculated. This is after reviewing the status of the rules, which have been in effect for 8 years and are awaiting the issuance of their fifth ruling from 2020.
At the last session, congressmen, together with Health Minister Jimena Aguilera; and Dipres director Javiera Martinezhow the law works, which creates a financial protection system for expensive diagnostics and treatment, which today has 30,000 active beneficiaries.
According to the authorities:
– Since 2017, the law fund has received an annual contribution of 100 billion pesos.
– Increases above budget in 2019 due to the pandemic, higher than expected annual patient admissions, and the fact that many treatments are taking longer than budgeted due to their greater effectiveness have made the fund prevent new ones from emerging. pathologies.
– From 2027, according to Dipres forecasts, “the lack of sustainability will cease to be fulfilled by 2027, because revenues will equal expenses.”
During the period of the law, four decrees were issued:
The 1st Decree of 2015 provided for 11 health problems and 18 medical technologies.
The 2nd Decree in 2016 provided for 3 health problems and 4 health technologies.
The 3rd Decree of 2018 provided for 4 health problems and 6 health technologies.
The 4th Decree of 2019 provided for 9 health problems and 15 medical technologies.
Decree 5 was not issued, so the 2019 decree was extended.
In this regard, Minister Aguilera announced that “despite the economic challenges that Dipres told us about, 22 medical technologies for 10 health problems are being scientifically evaluated. Therefore, we hope that by the end of this year there will be at least 2 sanitary technologies in this 5th decree.”
Faced with this news, the senators were reminded of a number of illnesses whose patients had insistently asked to be included in the list. After consulting with the authorities regarding costly drugs for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and cystic fibrosis, they acknowledged that “they are not covered by this decree, but we are going to cover it through a cost-sharing agreement with laboratories.”
In addition to the decree, senators Juan Luis Castro, Ximena Ordenes, Juan Ignacio Latorre and Sergio Gajona expressed concerns about funding the law. In fact, the latter stated: “I don’t understand what is the point of issuing the 5th Decree if there are no funds to pay for these funds, if we are told that there will be no money to pay for what is delivered today.”
From Dipres, Martinez acknowledged that “we are reviewing the funding mechanism. The goal of this administration is to study it and propose changes because there must be a solution to not live until 2027 with this big problem of lack of funds.”
Senators Latorre and Gajona have raised the possibility of amending the Ricarte Soto law or proposing additional clarifications to the 2024 budget law to be made in the coming weeks.
In the second part of the meeting, the senators considered state of the national cancer lawthat’s why they also had a presence Fonasa director Camilo Sid; Deputy Minister of Health Andrea Albagli; Deputy Minister of Aid Networks, Oswaldo Salgado; and Executive Director of the National Cancer Forum Foundation and Executive Secretary of the Center for Cancer Prevention and Control (CECAN) Caroline Goitsch.
Minister Aguilera, at the request of the Commission, provided detailed information on the national plan, training of medical and non-medical personnel in the field of oncology, current research funds developed by the Catholic University and the University of Chile, the state of progress in the establishment of an oncology network, including 6 macro-regions and 61 highly comprehensive centers, as well as a national register that already includes an electronic notification.
The congressmen expressed public concern mainly about the unfulfilled oncological guarantees. In this regard, Minsal acknowledged that HPP’s overdue guarantees accounted for 3.2% of the total (70,000 benefits), recognizing that oncology accounted for 21% of this percentage (approximately 15,000). These situations mostly correspond to cancers of the cervix, breast, colon and stomach.
In essence, the senators commented on the realities of their regions, depicting equipment shortages as a result of low investment projects or queues that make it difficult to care for the sick, a reality made more difficult by the pandemic. .
Thus, the Commission agreed to review the details of research carried out by the Center for Cancer Prevention and Control (CECAN), which employs various universities, in order to identify best practices for risk factor monitoring, prevention, early detection and treatment. cancer. Researchers from the said center will be hosted at one of the future sessions.