LatinNews Daily - 7 March 2025

*A health reform bill submitted by the government of Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has cleared the lower chamber of congress with 95 votes in favour and 25 against. This is the second iteration of the health bill, after a previous version was archived by a senate commission in April 2024. The bill would replace the country’s private health insurers (EPS), which act as financial intermediaries between patients and the government, with new state-controlled entities called Gestoras de Salud y Vida. The government argues that this will reduce the amount of taxpayer money that goes to these intermediaries and will reduce healthcare inequalities between rural and urban areas, among other benefits. Opponents of the reform argue that the current system works well and that the EPS model should be tweaked, rather than scrapped altogether. The bill now proceeds to the senate, which has generally been more critical of Petro’s reform agenda than the lower chamber.