The government of Axel Kicillofhas once again blocked the debate in the Buenos Aires Legislature regarding the IOMA crisis, the social security system that covers more than 2.2 million affiliates and is going through a critical situation marked by service cuts, delays, debts with hospitals and lack of coverage for patients who need urgent responses.
The special session convened this Thursday in the Chamber of Deputies of the Province of Buenos Aires had managed to gather a quorum, but Unión por la Patria entered the chamber to prevent the urgent consideration of projects promoted by various opposition blocs. To enable the debate, two-thirds of the votes were required, a number that the government refused to support.
Agustín Romo on X (formerly Twitter)
In this context, the deputy from La Libertad Avanza (LLA) Agustín Romo questioned the hypocrisy of the Buenos Aires government and denounced that a project of his authorship aimed at stopping the provincial government from paying official advertising and allocating those funds to settle IOMA's debt was also rejected.
“IOMA is a disaster and the Chamber of Deputies of the province of Buenos Aires has just rejected all opposition projects to solve the problems of the Buenos Aires social security system,” Romo stated.
The legislator from La Libertad Avanza emphasized that his initiative directly targeted one of the most questioned political expenses of the provincial administration: official advertising. “It seems they care more about selling the narrative than about health,” he asserted.
Deputy Diego Garciarena, president of the UCR-Cambio Federal bloc, pointed to the provincial administration and stated that while the Legislature does not debate, there are affiliates without hearing aids, cancer patients without medication, patients waiting for prosthetics, and people who cannot be hospitalized.
In the same vein, deputy Alejandra Lorden highlighted that there are more than 15 projects presented by the opposition and none have been able to be addressed. She also questioned the management of Homero Giles at the head of the agency and stated that IOMA “is worse than it was a year and a half ago.”
Kicillof's debt with Garrahan amounts to $8,278,000,000.
The situation escalated after the Garrahan Hospital publicly contradicted Kicillof's government and claimed a debt exceeding $8.278 million for services provided to IOMA affiliates. According to the hospital's statement, it is not true that the Province has regularized its payments, as reported by the Buenos Aires administration.
The Garrahan specified that the debt amounts to $8,278,254,990.97 and continues to grow daily due to the care of referred patients. Additionally, it clarified that the recent payments made by the Province were partial, against overdue debt, and that they will first be applied to cancel interest.
