Coronavirus in Colombia: 'public health intermediaries plan to assign ICU's to highest bidder'
by Adriaan Alsema March 31, 2020
Public health intermediaries plan to assign only their best-paying clients to intensive care units (ICUs) during the pandemic, according to Colombias Medical Federation (FMC).
FMC executive Carolina Corcho made the bombshell accusation on Twitter on Monday and urged immediate intervention to prevent what she called a penny war.
If Corchos claim is correct, this would mean that Colombians would be refused life-saving healthcare based on their financial status, not their health condition.
At the same time, those who can afford it would be incentivized to increase their health insurance policy in the hope this would increase their chances of treatment if they fall ill during the pandemic and need an ICU.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/coronavirus-in-colombia-public-health-intermediaries-plan-to-assign-icus-to-highest-bidder/
The Magistrate
(95,255 posts)Moral Compass
(1,525 posts)Colombia is as close to a pure oligarchy as you can find anywhere. If you get sick and have money the medical care is excellent. If you dont have money well...
I lived there almost 50 years ago and this was normal then. There was 0 safety net. Orphans roaming the streets whose parents had made the oldest leave the family when the newest child was born. Homeless and skilled in theft and begging.
Utterly dirty because there was nowhere to bathe. The older ones taking care of the younger onesforming into feral family units. Some of those boys and girls ultimately joining FARC and, after I left, became the cartels.
Colombia is why Im an unreserved liberal social democrat. This is what the world that Grover Norquist and Newt and the Koch brothers want to create. If you are born into the right family life is very, very good indeed. If you are one of the campesinos the best you can do is serve your masters and hope that they are kind and justbut have no expectations at all.
And if you are below the campesinos then you exist in one of the vast shanty towns and live and breed like cattle without running water or electricity and human waste mixed with animal waste runs down the unpaved paths in torrents when it rains.
Colombia can be so beautiful and so awful. In the time of pandemic there will be little mercy to spare for the peasants.