JAN. 5, 2020

President Piñera presents “Better Fonasa” to guarantee access to timely, quality and less costly healthcare for 14.5 million people

The reform to the public health insurance system will ensure faster and better healthcare for its members and a decrease in healthcare and medication costs for families.

On Sunday, at La Moneda Palace, President Sebastián Piñera presented the “Mejor Fonasa” (Better Fonasa) bill to reform Chile’s National Health Service (FONASA) in order to progress towards providing a better service for over 14.5 million Chileans.

The bill also creates the Universal Health Plan (Plan de Salud Universal), which guarantees access to timely healthcare services for the entire population and seeks to reduce wait times and establish deadlines for the provision of surgery, procedures, specialty consults and all of the other services included in the new plan.

“Implementing ‘Better Fonasa’ means addressing the problems that we have heard about and experienced. The best way to govern well is to listen to people carefully and humbly,” President Piñera stated during an activity that he attended with Health Minister Jaime Mañalich, Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel, Minister Secretary General of the Presidency Felipe Ward, members of Congress and people affiliated to Fonasa.

“Better Fonasa” will ensure faster and better healthcare for its members and a decrease in healthcare and medication costs for families.

Furthermore, in an effort to decrease the cost of medications for Chileans, a new Medication Insurance will be created for all Fonasa members that will guarantee access to lower prices on medications with anticipated savings of 60%. The plan will provide financial protection for nearly 200 of the most frequently used medications such as pharmaceuticals for diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Cenabast will be responsible for purchasing the medications and Fonasa will manage the bidding process for their distribution and will finance some of the costs.

The bill will approve the care currently provided in healthcare institutions, and Fonasa will ensure that Universal Health Plan guarantees are met. It will manage a network of providers created and overseen by Fonasa that will privilege the use of public health system entities, allowing for the inclusion of other institutions when hospitals do not have capacity.

“We are concerned about the issue of healthcare, which Chileans have identified as one of their main problems and one of their main priorities,” President Piñera explained.

The reform will mean that Fonasa will stop being a simple “cash register” and will be a true Public Health Service that protects its members’ interests and ensures that the Universal Health Plan involves quality care and meets deadlines. The bill provides for new institutional structure in Fonasa, creating a Board of Directors that will ensure that it is more autonomous, independent, professional and transparent, along with an Advisory Board that will allow for citizen participation and input from healthcare providers.

Finally, during the “Better Fonasa” presentation, the President called on legislators to support the reform in Congress.