La ciudad y los uniónes

Day 3 was full of learning about Buenos Aires and Argentina as a whole, whether it be about the history, culture, and geography, or about the role of unions in the healthcare system. In the morning, we went to the city hall to get a lecture Daniel Ferrante about the Buenos Aires ministry of health and how it relates to the public sector of the system, and how the Argentine healthcare system is evolving to a more digital standpoint. He also emphasized that Buenos Aires is considered its own state, not officially, but just like Washington, D.C. is viewed by us, and is referred to as CABA (Autonomous City of Buenos Aires). After that, we went back to Austral to learn about the union health system from Gabriel Lebersztein, who is the Head of the Commerical Union of Buenos Aires, which is the biggest in the city. The unions are a huge part of the Argentine social safety net, consisting of 72% of healthcare coverage in the country. The unions miraculously charge $13.80/month per person for coverage, which is very affordable for many of the lower-class citizens. The government protects only the public sector from going bankrupt, so when the unions operate the same as the public system but with far more risk. Any given Argentinian citizen can be a member of multiple unions, but they can only pay for coverage from one union. Lastly, we got a bus tour of the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires: Plaza de Mayo, which had the workspace of the president along with the treasury and other banks, Santelmo, which has a lot of shops, and La Boca, a vibrant and signature Latin American neighborhood. Our tour guide, Martin, was very patriotic and very nice- he taught us a lot about the city such as important historic dates and aspects of Argentine culture. My favorite part of the tour is when we walked around La Boca. There were a variety of shops and sights to see. I am very excited to see the rest of the city and what else it has to offer.

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