On the eve of the Federal March in Defense of Public Health called by opposition sectors for this Wednesday, attention shifted to the Ministry of Health of the Nation, where posters appeared with the amount of the debt from the administration of Governor Axel Kicillof regarding public health.
The posters displayed at the national health headquarters detail, on one hand, the level of investment by the Government of Javier Milei in the health system of the province of Buenos Aires and, on the other, the accumulated debt from the Kirchnerist provincial administration.
One of the posters states: “1,812,000,000,000 is the national government's investment in the health of the people of Buenos Aires,” while another indicates: “Kicillof's debt with Health: 644 billion pesos.”
The posters.
Kicillof's debt with health
According to official data, the Province maintains a debt of 644.7 billion pesos with the SAMIC hospitals, which are jointly managed with the Nation.
In addition, there is an additional liability of 14.7 billion pesos corresponding to the provincial social security for services provided both in those centers and in national hospitals.
In parallel, the posters highlighted the investment by Milei's Government in health aimed at the people of Buenos Aires, which amounts to 1,812,000,000,000 pesos.
This amount includes programs related to patient care in national hospitals and SAMIC, the provision of oncological medications and high-cost treatments, vaccination campaigns, prosthetics financed by the Garrahan Hospital, high-complexity treatments, disability policies, addiction prevention and programs like Remediar, among others.
The posters.
The background of these numbers becomes relevant in the context of the mobilization called by union and Kirchnerist organizations, which will march from the Ministry of Health to Plaza de Mayo under the slogan “Health cannot wait.”
In that context, Kicillof himself had hardened his rhetoric in recent hours. “There is no discussion to be had. The health policies and the abandonment of health by the national government of Javier Milei are killing. What is happening is criminal,” he asserted this Tuesday during a press conference alongside his Minister of Health, Nicolás Kreplak.
Despite these statements and the push for mobilization, the numbers released by the national Ministry of Health expose a strong contradiction: while a march is called in defense of the health system, the Province carries a significant debt with key institutions for medical care, many of which are jointly supported with the national government.
