BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian insurance company Sura announced on Tuesday its decision to withdraw from the nation’s health system, citing insufficient resources from the government to cover its growing costs for managing over 5 million patients.
Opposition leaders expressed regret over the decision, accusing Colombia’s first left-wing government of attempting to push private insurers out of the healthcare market to force citizens into publicly owned insurance companies. Some politicians have suggested that protests may occur in response to recent actions by President Gustavo Petro’s administration, which they say are increasingly placing the health system under state control.
“The crisis at Sura is the crisis of our country,” former President Alvaro Uribe stated on his X account. “I hope there are widespread actions against these government decisions that are destroying the health sector.”
Colombia’s current health system involves the government setting rates for health insurance payments based largely on a person’s monthly income. These payments are deposited into a government-run fund and distributed to insurance companies, which manage patients and pay hospitals and healthcare providers to ensure universal healthcare.
However, numerous complaints are filed annually by Colombians who argue that insurance companies delay or deny surgeries and lifesaving treatments. Hospitals have also reported growing debts from insurance companies, which surged during the pandemic and now total $1.5 billion.
President Petro has suggested that these issues could be resolved by replacing private insurers with a government-run agency to manage all patients and directly pay hospitals. However, Petro’s proposed reforms have faced rejection in Congress, with concerns that they would grant excessive power to government bureaucrats and could lead to mismanagement of resources by a state lacking the necessary personnel and expertise.
Critics argue that the government is now attempting to bypass opposition in Congress by underfunding private insurers and making decisions that make it unviable for them to operate. In January, the Ministry of Health raised the annual fee paid to insurance companies per affiliate by 12%, despite warnings that a 15% increase was needed for viability. In April, the government intervened in two major insurance companies for failing to meet financial reserve requirements.
Political risk analyst Sergio Guzman estimates that the Colombian government now controls about half of the nation’s health insurance accounts directly or indirectly. This control is expected to increase significantly if Sura’s 5 million affiliates are transferred to a state-run insurance company.
“The government will stop at nothing to see the most extreme components of its reform agenda enacted,” Guzman said. “Despite whatever collateral damage will occur as a result.”
Jorge Restrepo, an economist at Bogota’s Javeriana University, warned that Sura’s withdrawal threatens thousands of jobs and complicates the transfer of medical histories to new insurers.
“The ball is now in the government’s court. With its actions, it will sculpt the future of healthcare in Colombia,” Restrepo remarked.
