The Invisible Hand of Nature that guides the market can sometimes fail: the government ran into that problem with prepaid upgrades. For Luis Caputo it was a
“declaration of war on the middle class”
and for Sturzenegger
“something painful, but you cannot blame those who are ordering the situation. “You have to trust the market.”
The government
chose Claudio Belocopitt for the fight,
a flesh and blood enemy, president of the Argentine Health Union, owner of Swiss Medical, shareholder of Grupo América, close to Sergio Massa and Rodolfo Daer.
“He is not worried, but he is stunned by the personal attack,”
a member of his entourage told this newspaper.
“He has clinics, he employs 16,000 people,”
they added.
The attack began with
a retweet from the president where Belocopitt was insulted
and then with the version that in 2020 his group received $13 million in state aid to pay salaries, which covered 40% of its expenses.
Belocopitt later bought Medicus and is now building a mega clinic in Nordelta. Companies sense that a resolution from the Competition Commission on possible cartelization would take too long and
they expect a concrete sanction in the coming days.
They take as an indication the rejection that came on Thursday night by Minister Mario Russo of the meeting request made by various chambers of the sector (CIMARA, ADEMP and CEMPRA).
“No one sits at a table if they don't go back with the increases”
they heard. From Santiago Caputo's office they asked them not to increase in May or even in June. The companies took note of the actions of the little-known Hominis, the prepaid company of the Sanatorio Güemes. The sanatorium is owned by Silver Cross América,
a company founded by Mario Lugones
, a cardiologist with close contacts with the government and, in particular, with the Chief of Staff. His son Rodrigo is Santiago Caputo's partner in his consulting firm and there are those who consider him to be a shadow health minister.
His prepaid gave up the 13% increase.
The prepaid companies, for their part, target the laboratories: they complain that while they had late payments, the medications increased 400%, which puts pressure on their costs.
”If we do not increase in May or June, does the government guarantee us that they will not increase supplies and medicines either?”