Topic: Healthcare as a Human Right
Country: Colombia
Delegate Name: Christian Koch
School: Ann Arbor Community High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Colombia position papers GLIMUN 2012 committees
By, Christian Gerard Koch, representative of Colombia- Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian committee.
Colombia has been having it’s own health care debate in recent years. Our president, Juan Manuel Santos, plans on providing a new healthcare system for Colombians in the year 2012 to replace the old, out-dated plan. “We will have a universal benefit plan, an equitable and comprehensive one that will not exclude any pathology, that is not going to exclude any disease,” Santos said. In the past, we have had many issues with our health care system and aim to improve it.
Many citizens of Colombia have ridiculed the recent healthcare system as a “business” due to the many private healthcare companies has dominated it. The public healthcare system is for people who cannot afford private insurance – about half of Colombia’s 44 million people are in debt. Many Colombian citizens are being denied healthcare, as the mainstream companies cannot support their needs. This has created many obvious problems with the health care system. In short, there is simply no more money in government coffers to fund extensive healthcare for those who need it the most and can’t afford private insurance. Even the government has admitted in recent weeks the system is in crisis. Over the month of October, Colombia has eliminated nearly forty healthcare companies from the public healthcare system due to companies embezzling over 2.5 million dollars in healthcare money.
The crisis in Colombia is very complicated and we want to fix it. We want to improve the system so everyone may have affordable healthcare. Healthcare is a big issue around the world in recent years. As Colombia is aiming to rebuild it’s focus on humanities, healthcare is an aspect of life that the world is beginning to recognize and Colombia aims to go along with developed countries such as Switzerland and Germany. The year 2012 will bring a new, reformed healthcare system into full effect.
