Chile, stagnation and deterioration of mortality indicators. ¿Consequence of the imposed market model? Urgent analysis and correction, an ethical imperious objective

Abstract

This study is a critical analysis of the current situation of the Chilean public health system: in crisis by chronic waiting lists, lack of resources, party political politicization, management problems, and frustration of staffers. The authors propose that the crisis is a consequence of the current neoliberal market model, which has a privatizing nature. The research is based on the evolution of all the classic indicators of mortality, stagnant or deteriorated over the last decade, and several important specific chronic diseases that show a significant increase in mortality, with one exception.Fiscal resources have been transferred to the private sector because of the Universal Access with Explicit Guarantees law (AUGE for its acronym in Spanish) since 2005, along with a great politicization by the High Public Management law of 2007. Both laws have caused great frustration of staffers, especially of doctors, causing serious shortages of resources, management problems, and chronic waiting lists, which never existed before 1973. Proposals to correct the reported shortcomings of the public sector are presented, highlighting the paramount need for a broad national debate about the return to a solidary public system with the reconstitution of a modern and integrated National Health Service with ethical foundations.