LatinNews Daily - 04 April 2024

*The health reform bill put forward by Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has been sunk by the senate’s seventh commission, which voted to archive the legislation with nine votes in favour and five against. The commission’s rejection of the health reform, which cleared the lower chamber of congress in December, was widely expected and comes amid an intensifying standoff between congress and Petro. Those tensions escalated further yesterday after Colombia’s healthcare regulator (Supersalud) intervened in a second private health insurer (EPS), declaring that Nueva EPS was in a similar state of financial distress to the Sanitas EPS, in which the regulator announced an intervention on 2 April. Supersalud’s director, Luis Carlos Leal, said that the intervention is aimed at “ensuring that health resources end up in the right place and that people’s fundamental right to healthcare is respected”.