The prepaid companies waited until the last minute to define
the increase they will impose in March fees
, an increase that they must notify their members 30 days in advance.
This Thursday morning, there was still uncertainty among the more than 6 million members to whom, paying attention to their emails,
the notice of the increase
by the entities seemed imminent.
The thing is that among the largest in the country, not all of them have yet sent that email.
As
Clarín
was able to confirm from the sector, the increase would finally
reach 23%
.
It is the
third consecutive increase
since the year started and has accumulated more than 100% in three months.
For some people the announcement will mean that they start paying
double for the same benefits
.
Another novelty, as they tell this newspaper from Swiss Medical, a prepaid company that has already sent the letters with the notice, is that
this increase will be different depending on the plan
.
"For those cheaper plans, which include
co-payments for certain benefits
by contract with the member , an increase of 11% will be applied," they detail from that entity.
Meanwhile, for the rest of the plans the increase will be 21.3%.
Omint and Medifé also reported increases of between 21% and 23%.
And last week, Galen had been the first to report the rise.
"In order to recompose the benefit values for both medical professionals and institutions, it is necessary to increase the value of the fees as of March 1 by 22.9%, which will be incorporated into the billing whose expiration operates in the month of April 2024", they communicated from Galen.
The prepaid company recalled that the possibility is open "to receive advice and evaluate the possibility of alternative plans, in order to reduce the aforementioned increase."
Prepaid plans try to recover the delay during 2023, when health plans increased 134% and inflation closed at 211.4%.
From the sector they maintain that all the variables that shape the price of the quotas are very backward.
The context of these "deferred" announcements is that President Javier Milei's DNU 70
changed a good part of private health operations
.
The articles of the prepaid law that gave the Superintendence of Health Services the power to regulate the cost of the plans were repealed.
Which will mean getting used to "the new."
In addition to the fact that the contributions of its members will no longer have to go through the union social works, it allowed the entities
to adjust their quotas without official mediation
: each one can impose the increase percentages to suit itself, to compete freely for clients.
The impact on members
The year began with complaints of “cartelization” of the sector due to the increases in January and February, never identical, but similar in timing and percentage range.
From the Civic Coalition they noted that in the "coordinated" way in which they were happening
there was no such competition between the prepaid companies but rather "there is abuse
." All in a context of judicial protections to stop them.
In the text, presented to the National Commission for the Defense of Competition, they point out that the increases were 40% in January and 30% in February and that both were presented by Claudio Belocopitt, within the framework of
a joint agreement of the Union Argentina de Salud (UAS)
, chamber of companies that bring together prepaid and social works and which Belocopitt presides.
While the increase in each prepaid plan in particular was defined, what was general was the
effect on the pockets
of those who pay for their coverage.
Based on the February forecast, in March the largest prepaid medicine companies tried, at a minimum, to match the fee with inflation, to recover the points lost in the last year, when for some months they were allowed increases below the increase in the functioning of the sector, between supplies, medicines and salaries.
The average increase scenario being from 21% for March, and considering the 40% that was applied in January, plus the approximate 30% in February, always according to the company, the increase would be 110% or even 120% compared to what they paid in December.
In this regard it is not possible to generalize.
Those who had their installments frozen during the last three months of 2023 (through
the process via form
to be beneficiaries of that brake) and their prepaid payments added the increase that was authorized in January and February,
could reach that 120% increase
.