Argentina Tightens Rules On Free Medical Care For Foreigners

Argentina’s federal government will no longer finance hospital care for non-resident foreigners, moving forward with a cost-cutting order issued last year by President Javier Milei, his office announced Tuesday.

A presidential spokesperson said the move would not impact life-saving emergency care, which “must not be delayed,” while the Ministry of Health noted that “cardiac arrest, heart attacks, strokes, severe trauma, massive hemorrhages, extensive burns, and obstetric, pediatric, or neonatal emergencies” would remain free of charge.

It would also appear to be limited by the fact that the Argentine health system is largely run by individual provinces, except certain regional hospitals managed at the federal level.

Milei, a self-declared “anarcho-capitalist” and a close ally of US President Donald Trump, has repeatedly argued that the cash-strapped Argentine state should not be extending its largesse — including free health care — to foreigners who do not pay tax.

His spokesperson emphasized on Tuesday that the move targeted “medical tourism,” described as people coming into the country, receiving treatment at a public hospital, and then returning home. The official did not provide any estimates on how large the phenomenon actually is.

Milei’s opponents argue that the measure is an excuse for his libertarian government to underfund public health.

Nicolas Kreplak, health minister of Buenos Aires province — the country’s most populous and governed by the Peronist (center-left) opposition — estimated that only “0.4 percent of emergency room visits and 0.5 percent of hospitalizations” involve non-resident foreigners.

“The health care system is overburdened due to a lack of resources, not because of foreigners,” he said Tuesday.

AFP