IESS Health Scandal: Admin. Sacked, El Supremo Addresses the Nation

So what, if anything, has changed?

El Supremo has announced he is cutting his own salary as part of a 10-15 percent pay-cut for top EC officials, in order to fund 2,000 more doctors and nurses.

He said it's part of a campaign to reduce maternal mortality.

El Presidente said Ecuador needs more gynecologists, anesthesiologists and nurses.

The $21-million taken from top officials' salaries will go to the EC Health Ministry, he said.

Also taking the pay cut will be the vice-president, ministers, and public servants whose pay exceeds $6,000 per month.

source:  telesurtv.net, as posted at latinamericacurrentevents.com

mugtech wrote:

So what, if anything, has changed?

An extended article currently on the welcome page at the Cuenca Highlife website updates the situation with IESS/Social Security healthcare.

Among other things, the article points out that the number of beneficiaries in the system has tripled since an expansion dating back to 2010.

www.cuencahighlife.com

I read the Cuenca Highlife article and wanted to comment on the new visa situation requiring proof of health insurance for all new visa applicants; years of influx of retirees,  and the declining state of Ecuador's healthcare financing. Because I think they're connected.

While in Cuenca in January we stayed at a small B & B owned by a family which seemed to have taken on some long term boarders.

One of them was a US retiree in a motorized wheelchair suffering from cancer, and her daughter who took care of her. They had been there several months after applying for a retirement visa + dependent. They seemed pretty clueless about the visa laws and had no idea of the new visa changes. They were not using a lawyer.

Although nice enough people, to my mind they were emigrating to Ecuador hoping to survive on their US dole while Ecuador would be responsible for their medical care as soon as the visas came through.

And if the visas didn't come through? What happens then? Does the Ecuador government load an old woman in a wheelchair with cancer onto the next plane (at their expense) and ship her back to America? And if she does stay in Ecuador, she will be a burden on the healthcare system for the rest of her life.

Because of their fairly generous social programs and low income qualification for pensioner's visas, I think Ecuador came to realize that they were attracting a lot of old, sick, poor people from other countries who were never going to put as much into the economy as they took out.

gardener1 wrote:

the new visa situation requiring proof of health insurance for all new visa applicants....

They (mother and daughter) seemed pretty clueless about the visa laws....

Although nice enough people, to my mind they were emigrating to Ecuador hoping to survive on their US dole while Ecuador would be responsible for their medical care....

For the moment, we're all pretty clueless about how the new visa rules will shake out.

With a new administration coming in after the runoff election, I suspect it could be around August before all becomes clear.

In the meantime, it's conceivable that would-be visa applicants will be in limbo.

The matter of how the supposed insurance-requirement will be applied and enforced is part of the presently unknowable.

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The percentage of Expats in Ecuador is a drop in the bucket, so Expats burdening the IESS system is not the problem.  As the Highlife article points out, the big burden on the system is the expansion that has allowed millions of Ecuadorian dependents not previously covered to enter the system as beneficiaries.

cccmedia

I understand the drop in the bucket statistics of expats in Ecuador concerning the Healthcare system.  However, as politics go and with the more conservative candidate currently given a slight edge, it would not be uncommon to disproportionately blame foreigners.  This is currently a worldwide trend, as evidenced by the April election in France and the new administration in the USA.  Wait and see can be difficult for anyone concerning future healthcare,  as evidenced by the discussion going down in the USA.  Wishing Ecuador nothing but the best.