We started off the morning with a presentation from Dr. Florencia Ledesma, physician and director of ASE Conecta. We were introduced to Medifé, a national nonprofit prepaid health insurance company, and learned about how it deals with clients, the services it offers, how it contacts doctors. It offers many services including outpatient medical care, hospitalization, emergency servives and dental care, and have 13 clinics aroun Argentina. Medifé was previously a health insurance company, but then ASE closed down and eliminated the proces of an intermediary, which was used to collect and distribute those contributions to providers like Medifé. When ASE closed, Medifé was forced into a new, direct contribution system where it took on the the position of a health insurance agent and could function on its own. Dr. Ledesma explained that this shift changed many things, including simplifying the process, improving efficiency, empowering worker choice, encouraging competition, and promoting transparency. In the afternoon, we visited ICBA Instituto Cardiovascular, a private hospital, where we were given a presentation from the medical director and head of nursing. Swiss Medical owns ICBA, but they run independently and meet together each month to discuss the dashboard. This hospital was by far the nicest we have seen since our time in Argentina, even compared to the Austral private hospital. They put a heavy emphasis on “patient first” transparancy, and explained that with good medicine comes good business. After the presentations we took a tour of the private clinic, where a physicial showed us a video recording of a cardiac catheterization done to one of his recient patients. This was such a cool thing to see, as I’ve never watched anything like that before.

During our time here we have seen a variety of public and private hospitals, and the differnce between these institutions is very eye-opening. The private hospitals had so many more resources, BSN nurses, updated technology, and a nicer physical infrastructure than the public hospitals. It was jarring when compatring ICBA with Paroissien Hospital in La Matanza, a public hospital. Seeing these different healthcare centers really put it into perspective how unfair the system is for people with a low income, as even thoug they have the right to a lot of basic care, the facilities are not well maintained, wait times are long, and access to advanced treatments and technology is limited. Although at the same time, I gained a lot of respect for the nurses and physicians working in both public and private hospitals. Workers in both areas are doing amazing work at their jobs with the resources they have access to, and are incredibly compassionate and dedicated to their patients.