The Minister of Health, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, publicly clarified that the departure of the National Deputy Superintendent of Health, Luis Carlos Leal, was not related to the allegations of corruption in some intervened EPS.
In a press conference, Jaramillo expressed his respect and admiration for Leal, emphasizing that he is “a supremely important person, a professional,” and underlined his integrity by assuring that the former superintendent is “a transparent man” whose honesty he defends during the time they worked together.
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This turn occurred after a series of controversies and speculations about Leal’s departure from the Superintendency, which took place the last week of October, just after a series of interventions at several EPS. Among them, Sanitas, Nueva EPS, Asmet Salud and Savia Salud, decisions that were interpreted as a way to pressure Congress to approve the health reform, which was finally rejected in April.
Although it had initially been proposed that Leal take over as the new director of the National Institute of Health (INS), this appointment was reversed, and now there is speculation about his appointment to the Teaching Fund (Fomag).
During his speech, Minister Jaramillo insisted that the situation of the intervened EPS is critical and that the government, headed by President Gustavo Petro, has intervened in these entities to prevent their collapse. “When the EPS have intervened and the president has done that for a long time, it is because there has been a need to put them in intensive care“, he explained, in reference to the lack of reserves and capital in said entities.
For the minister, the objective of these interventions is to achieve the sustainability of the health system. “The only thing we hope is that we manage to get them out of intensive care and get them to walk very adequately in the new system,” he stated, while emphasizing that President Petro and his team are working for a structural solution to the EPS financing problems.
During the press conference, Jaramillo also highlighted the profile of the former superintendent, whom he described as a representative of the “diversity” that characterizes the current government. “He is a young person with good ideas, clear ideas, diverse… we are and we attend to diversity, we are with the Afro people, with the indigenous people, with the workers, we represent that diversity,” declared the minister, reinforcing the importance of figures as Leal within Petro’s political project.
In that sense, Jaramillo expressed his conviction that Leal could occupy another important position in the government. “I am convinced that Dr. Leal is going to be in an important position at this time”. If his arrival at Fomag is completed, Leal would be assuming a role that is considered strategic for the management of the teachers’ health system, an entity that has been under scrutiny due to the problems experienced since the implementation of a new system in May.
The situation of the EPS, on the other hand, continues to be a priority issue for the government. The Petro administration and its allies have reiterated the importance of implementing deep reforms to ensure the sustainability of health entities and, ultimately, the system as a whole. In the words of Minister Jaramillo, “We reached agreements on 12 points that are clearly defined in the 48 of the reform”, which suggests that health reforms will continue to occupy a prominent place on the legislative agenda.
Although Leal’s future in the government has not yet been officially defined, his departure from the Superintendency and the government’s reaction to the EPS interventions reflect the complexity of the situation of the health system in Colombia, as well as the challenges that faces the Petro administration in its intention to transform the sector.
