Today we started our day with a lecture with Dr. Florencia Ledesma who is the health innovation manager of Medife. Medife is a company that owns an insurance company that is also called Medife and the union (or Obra social) ASE. This lecture was very interesting since a big part of it was a Q&A so we were able to get a bunch of our questions answered and I felt like I had a much better understanding of the Obra Social section of healthcare after our talk. She talked about how at Medife there were different plans that one could purchase, there was the bronze (most basic) platinum, and gold (best plan). With the gold plan, you had access to things such as fútbol and concert tickets. Another interesting thing was that if you got some sort of health service done that wasn’t covered by your insurance Medife would reimburse you for half of what you paid no matter what plan you have.
After our first lecture, we went back to IES for a quick lunch and then headed to a private cardiovascular clinic for our second lecture and tour. This was our first visit with a specialty clinic so it was interesting to see how it runs differently than the hospitals. They had designed the rooms to look like airport lounges so it felt a lot less like a medical facility and much more relaxing. They have also been recently purchased by Swiss Medical which is the same company that owns the private hospital Los Arcos which we visited last week.
Once we were done with our visit at the private clinic we had a cultural activity at the Malba Museum. This was a more modern art type museum which was a nice contrast from the more historical museum that we went to yesterday. My favorite part was getting to see original artwork done by Frida Kahlo and learning more about her life. Overall I really enjoyed the lectures and cultural visits we had today. I’m looking forward to our public hospital visit and meeting with more students tomorrow!
