Today we started our day off by walking over to Austral for a presentation led by Dr. Josefina Medrano, a former minister of Salta Province. Salta is one of the poorest provinces in Argentina. Dr. Medrano provided an overview of it and how the pandemic affected healthcare within the area. She talked about the complexities and how she managed them in deciding how to solve the issues. After the presentation, we headed over to Hospital Fernandez, a public hospital. Compared to other hospitals we toured, this one was more crowded and active. We got to take a look at their ICU, the COVID unit, etc. Hospital Fernandez was much different than the next hospital we toured, Los Arcos which is private. This facility was very clean and nice looking as it is owned by Swiss Medical, one of the top private insurance companies. We were able to look at their rooms where patients stayed, ICU, and one of the operating rooms. They had advanced technology and equipment for the best possible care as well as their patient rooms that had a good amount of sunlight and space.
Socioeconomic Class in Healthcare: Similar and Differences Between the US and Argentina:
The social gradient in health and healthcare often shows that those who are in a lower income class may not be able to access the best possible care compared to those who earn more such as the higher class who are able to afford efficient care like Swiss Medical. For those of the lower income class often experience worse outcomes. This can allude to higher rates in diseases and mortality rates. Because they cannot access care like Swiss Medical and other private unions it limits their access to preventive care. They resort to public hospitals that are free yet can have worse conditions which has more staffing issues, less clean environments, etc. Adding on, there is a lack of staff for the public sector as well as less educated members. Higher income members often can afford prepaid plans that are more efficient and offer higher care as well as more access to healthcare in general. They can afford to go to hospitals like ICBA and Los Arcos that are more specialized and have higher quality care through private insurance companies.
The differences between the US and Argentina is that the United States are only organized through private sectors, this can make it hard to access care for those who are in a lower income bracket. On the other hand, Argentina is organized with both public and private sectors and unions. The public sector allows everyone access to free healthcare, though this is beneficial it also brings many issues for the economy. Issues can include underfunding to the public hospital in which many of those in higher classes lean towards private care, this can lead into more of a divide in social classes. The US have different levels of insurance as this can create gaps within the socioeconomic classes. Though both countries have a social gradient within health and healthcare, the US has more of a rougher social gradient as Argentina allows more access through public sectors for lower income individuals.
