Abinader proposes progressive increases in the Dominican health budget

With the promise of gradually increasing the budget of the health sector, until raising it by 2024 to 3% of GDP, the presidential candidate Luis Abinader will focus his efforts on guaranteeing the access of the entire population to health services regardless of their socio-economic condition. The efforts include strengthening primary care, in the prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases, and in increasing resources to the Ministry of Public Health.

This is stated in the government program of the presidential candidate of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), which explains that with the inclusion of all citizens in the Family Health Service, it is sought that they do not have to pay for the services that must be guaranteed constitutionally.

In that order, if Abinader won the presidential elections on July 5, the capital of the Subsidized Regime would be increased, and the budget assigned to primary care would be executed more efficiently. In the government plan, it is also contemplated that in the first level of care there is a supply of medicines, and that “basic clinical analysis and imaging studies relevant to that level of care are provided, in order to improve quality and increase patient adherence at this level.” In this sense, attention would be given to patients with diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and morbid obesity.

The strategies to improve user care include reviewing rates and verifying the catalog of benefits of the Health Services Plan, in order to update them for the use of new technologies.

Regarding medicines, the national medical industry will be supported, favoring massive purchases through Promese-Cal.
Personal recruitment. To designate managerial and professional positions in the health sector, opposition contests will be held, and profiles will be defined by positions.

In this sense, the positions will be established based on real needs, with certain recruitment mechanisms, induction to the position, work hours, wages, and incentives. Attention will also be paid to nursing personnel, for which the National Nursing Directorate will be created, which will have its own structure.

Likewise, “technical training in this sector will be reinforced, to mitigate the lack of nursing personnel that we have today.”
Public-private partnerships. One of the strategies that would be developed in an Abinader government is that private establishments can provide assistance in places where hospitals cannot offer certain services to users.

In this context, the attention of the most vulnerable groups will be emphasized, and health programs for women will be applied with the protocols of the World Health Organization.