We started off day six by taking a trip to the Buenos Aires City Government for a lecture from the current Deputy Minister of Health of CABA. He explained to us how there are nuclear groups in each province that help to organize and manage healthcare, making sure national plans are followed while also meeting local needs. One key issue he highlighted was that the public hospital currently maintains 5,000 inpatient beds, when only around 1,000 are actually necessary. This imbalance is partly due to people from outside the province using the services without contributing to their funding. As a result, there has been a major push to shift from inpatient care to now strengthening primary care, with efforts being made to ensure that each neighborhood has access to a local clinic.

After this, we headed over to the Austral city campus to listen to two presentations. The first was done by the current Director of the Obra Social de Comercio, which is the largest union in Argentina. He explained to us how the unions get their money through mandatory payroll contributions, meaning that both employers and employees contribute to the system. The money collected is then used to provide healthcare services to union members. People can choose which union they want to be apart of, which becomes an issue when everyone wants to switch into the wealthiest ones. This creates inequities in healthcare access and quality as it overwhelms the union’s capacity, both in terms of resources and infrastructure, without a proportional increase in funding. This can also destabilize the smaller or poorer unions. The second presentation done by the past Deputy National Ministry of Health focused on gaps in healthcare coverage and outlined several goals to improve overall health outcomes across the country.

One of the key things we learned about today when discussing Obras Sociales is PMO. PMO is a mandatory medical program that outlines what health benefits the health insurance providers are required to cover. Issues arise when this system is taken advantage of, because while there is a minimum set of services that must be covered, there is no cap on the maximum. For example, Congress has the authority to require health insurance companies to cover expensive medications or procedures that may not be considered essential by everyone. This can increase the financial burden on the entire healthcare system. To sustain this level of spending, taxes may need to rise, or insurance providers risk running out of funds. This is a significant issue in Argentina right now, and it was insightful to hear from experts who are deeply familiar with the system.